Financial services giant and fintech pioneer State Street Corporation has a history nearly as long and rich as that of the city it calls home. Founded and headquartered in Boston since 1792, the company has defined its legacy by building client trust through responsible investments. SMMA’s relationship with State Street—in conjunction with State Street partner and commercial real estate firm CBRE—is similarly built on trust, comprised of more than a decade of projects ranging from master plan studies to interior office renovations.
The majority of SMMA's current work with State Street pertains to interior design, extending beyond the realm of typical corporate fit-outs. Given the sensitive nature of its business, State Street cannot afford a systems shutdown, necessitating design solutions that ensure uninterrupted power to critical data infrastructure—thus providing investors peace of mind.
Working within State Street’s brand standards, SMMA’s interior designers have delivered outcomes that maintain distinct personalities, provide flexibility for future growth, and accommodate the client’s need for backup power while keeping the user experience at the forefront of their approach.
To read more about SMMA's approach to corporate standards, click here.
At the client’s Quincy campus, SMMA’s structural and MEP engineers have worked in tandem with its interior designers to deliver highly technical solutions in a condensed timeframe. These solutions included everything from designing a structure to accommodate a dry cooler on the roof, repairing all conduit throughout the space, bringing in fresh air, and increasing the size of the data rooms.
Working toward State Street’s directive to provide a young and fresh space — emblematic of the company’s shift from the traditional staidness of finance to the less corporate culture of technology — SMMA's designers aimed to brighten the interiors as much as possible with finishes, furniture, and lighting that reflected the vibrance of the client's workforce.
"When we were putting together a team to plan the future of our office, it was a given that we would invite the SMMA team to the first meeting. We knew our building and our culture, but we also knew that SMMA would be able to take us 'outside the box' and help us see where the rest of the world was going."
Vice President, Regional Asset Manager
In addition to interiors, SMMA's work for State Street in Quincy encompasses a number of site interventions geared toward ensuring best-use outcomes for the client, including a complete master plan of the five-building campus and a rebuilt/renovated entrance plaza and lobby for the John Adams Building.
The former project, winner of a Merit Award for Planning from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, envisioned a development more finely attuned to the pedestrian experience — one more walkable, celebratory of its setting, and better connected for the benefit of its many occupants and visitors. The latter has helped to bring part of that vision to life.
State Street’s Clifton, New Jersey space presented many overt and immediate design challenges in terms of its physical location. The office spans the first and basement floors of a building that sits adjacent to the Garden State Parkway. With low ceilings, small windows that yield ground-level views of a freeway, and a deep floor plate to contend with, our designers immediately sought ways to humanize and brighten the space, focusing on improving connections and maximizing occupant comfort.
Sit-to-stand workstations, a variety of space types such as huddle rooms, open and informal meeting areas, and a cafeteria, as well as an aesthetic punctuated by pops of color and new lighting, were among the interventions the SMMA team made in transforming the office into a 21st century workplace.
