Boston – Payette recently announced that they have recently moved into their new corporate headquarters at 290 Congress Street on Atlantic Wharf in Boston.
With this move, Payette transitioned its former 5-story office into a single open floor plate. Designed internally, the office is surrounded by windows with city and waterfront views and an abundance of natural light. The new highly flexible layout supports open collaboration and reflects a renewed culture. It was also designed with the intention of achieving LEED Gold in support of the firm’s goal towards sustainability, reinforced by its recent commitment to the AIA 2030 challenge.
“For many years our working model has been that of a highly collaborative practice in which the experience and talent of the firm have fused into a collective consciousness; and yet our former office of five floors did not always support that model,” says James H. Collins, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP, president of Payette. “While our practice continuously overcame this challenge, our new office environment, designed specifically for this collaborative model on a single floor, has proven to be a great asset to support the way we work.”
This new work space has re-energized the architects and designers and has triggered a significant increase in collaboration and cross-studio dialogue. Additionally, the space has improved efficiency and is poised to best leverage the firm’s collective intelligence. Rather than the previous isolated studio arrangement, the new wide-open space functions as a laboratory and workshop, reinforcing the firms roots as designers of complex buildings for science, healthcare, and education. This workshop environment has created a sophisticated feeling that celebrates the ideas of transparency and collaboration.
The internal design team chose to use ‘dinner-table’ style works stations in lieu of assembled cubicles. The lack of partitions encourages collaboration and supports the important concept of transparency and openness. The central design element is the reconfigurable open pin-up alcoves along the interior side of the open studio. The tack board partitions are hung from tracks in the ceiling and can easily be moved to transform the alcoves to suit projects of varying sizes, and foster broader and impromptu design discussions. These alcoves have become a gallery of the current thinking within the firm.
Atlantic Wharf has historically been the home to many architectural firms in Boston. The building sits between the new Rose Kennedy Greenway and the waterfront with ties to Boston’s rich architectural and maritime past.
Payette moved into the fifth floor of the character-rich brick section of the 750,000 SF Class A building, which also includes retail and public spaces, residential units, an underground parking garage and a waterfront plaza. Additionally the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) will be moving into the building this fall, enabling Payette and the BSA to enjoy a more mutually beneficial relationship due to this proximity. The building is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
Payette worked with Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts during lease negotiations, while the building owner was represented by Boston Properties. Commodore Builders performed the interior fit-out.