SMMA • 18th January 2026

Short: How We Designed 321 Harrison

SMMA's Director of Design Michael Pardek explains the inspiration for the schematic design of 321 Harrison, a new lab-office building in Boston's South End.

SMMA • 4th January 2026

Phil Poinelli and Rosemary Park on Educational Planning

[I was the host and producer of this episode of the SMMA Podcast, which focuses on the impact of the firm's work in markets such as K-12 Schools, Life Sciences, and Workplace.]

ACE Mentor Program of Greater Boston • 3rd October 2025

Supporting Boston's Next Generation of Architects, Engineers, and CMs

The ACE Mentor Program of Greater Boston gives free mentoring and scholarship opportunities for high schoolers to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, construction management, and related fields. In this documentary, we go behind the scenes with mentors as they help prepare students for their big presentations at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

SMMA • 12th September 2025

Comprehensive High Schools: Where Vocational Meets Academic

Comprehensive High Schools are unique educational environments that co-locate academic and career and technical education (CTE) programs—also known as vocational programs—under one roof. In this video, we asked students, teachers, and administrators to share their day-to-day experiences of life in two SMMA-designed comprehensive high schools in Somerville and Waltham, MA.

SMMA • 21st March 2025

Ask SMMA! What Is the Best City for Architecture?

✨Ask SMMA 🎬 We’re putting SMMAers in the hot seat to answer quick questions about their work processes, the built environment, and their take on all things design. What city is your favorite for architecture?

SMMA • 18th December 2024

Happy Holidays from SMMA! [2024 Version]

This holiday season, we celebrate the stories and traditions that bring us all together . . . Happy Holidays from all of us at SMMA!

SMMA • 15th October 2024

Challenging Addition Creates Stunning New Tower in Boston

This lab-office tower addition at 100 Hood Park Drive in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood is one of the latest milestones in a neighborhood transformed. Watch as SMMA's design team discusses the challenges of designing a "building on top of a building" and explains the inspiration behind the tower's striking façade.

SMMA • 5th December 2023

Inside Entrada Therapeutics' New Seaport Home

The new state-of-the-art headquarters for Entrada Therapeutics in Boston’s Seaport District foregoes the typical visual barrier between lab and office. With its warm interiors, historic character, and inviting collaboration spaces, Entrada’s new digs maximizes dialogue and teamwork in the pursuit of developing new medicines for patients.

Manchester School District • 10th October 2023

Voices of Manchester: Supporting the Transformation of Our Public Schools

Manchester School District is thrilled to share this short film supporting the ongoing transformation of our public-school facilities. Hear from teachers, administrators, businesspeople, and residents as they express the importance of investing in public education and the impact that Priority One projects will make across our city.

SMMA • 10th November 2025

How Experiential Graphics Help Employees Take Pride in Their Work

In 1904, Frank Lloyd Wright designed his first major public building: the head office for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo. Boasting novel features such as central air conditioning, communal dining spaces, and even a branch of the Buffalo Public Library, Wright’s building was designed to foster company culture-building and wellness. But it was another innovation, dreamt up by Larkin manager William Heath, that pushed this employee-first ethos a step further.

SMMA • 11th September 2025

It's Time To Grant Licensure to Interior Designers in Massachusetts

In 2017, I was interviewed on a topic close to my heart: professional licensure for interior designers. I was frustrated that the state of Massachusetts would not allow interior designers to obtain a form of regulatory licensure, unlike the majority of states and provinces in the US and Canada.  Today, and several legislative defeats later, we are in exactly the same position.

SMMA • 8th April 2025

Why New Building Codes Will Transform Lab Buildings in Massachusetts

New Massachusetts building codes are set to transform how life science companies and universities can carry out their lab work. After June 30, 2025, new-build and renovation lab projects must follow the 10th Edition of the Massachusetts Building Code. This code will radically change how we stack the program in high-rise lab buildings.

SMMA • 19th March 2025

Massachusetts Energy Reporting Mandates Are Here. What do Owners and Tenants Need to Know?

Right now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is rolling out its Large Building Energy Reporting (LBER) regulations. While currently limited to energy reporting, these new rules are the first step in what will surely become a long-term campaign to roll out carbon-reduction mandates across the entire state—just as updated BERDO and BEUDO rules have done in Boston and Cambridge.

SMMA • 12th March 2025

Why Companies Benefit From Designing for Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity—the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways—is one of the most important aspects of inclusive design. More and more companies are providing work environments that respect individual learning styles, working preferences, and sensory needs. This shift has grown out of two decades of brain research and advocacy, not to mention higher expectations from employees.

SMMA • 1st October 2024

SMMA - Integrated. Multidisciplinary. United.

[I managed and led content strategy, copywriting, and implementation of brand voice for a new website concurrent with a once-in-a-generation brand overhaul at SMMA.]

SMMA • 16th August 2024

4 Questions Life Science Companies Should Ask Before Signing a Lease

In the Boston area, the pandemic-era boom in life science development led to more companies being caught out by code and building restrictions.
We often hear from life science companies who signed a lease on a new lab building without fully considering whether these rules might limit their desired lab program.

SMMA • 30th April 2024

How a MetroWest Campus Became Home to Amazon Robotics

In 2017, developers Atlantic Management purchased a 66-acre pharmaceutical campus in Westborough in Greater Boston’s MetroWest area. The previous owner, AstraZeneca, had recently vacated the site, leaving the Town with reduced tax revenue and a piecemeal mix of empty drug manufacturing plants, offices, and recreational facilities.

SMMA • 16th February 2024

"Back-to-Office" Is Over. What's Next?

Years after the shift to hybrid work, many U.S. employees continue to prefer working from home. Data shows a consistent level of remote workdays since 2021. In other words, the “back-to-office” conversation is over. So, what’s next? Creating better work experiences for employees should still be the number one goal of any company. But achieving this requires a new, more strategic approach to workplace.

SMMA • 16th February 2023

Why Massachusetts Schools are Embracing Net Zero Energy

In Massachusetts, many communities seeking to redesign their K-12 school buildings have turned from net zero skeptics to fully-fledged advocates. In 2022 there were around 30 net zero energy (NZE) and net zero ready (NZER) school projects in various stages of design in the Commonwealth, including six by SMMA.

Tulip • 1st March 2021

How Apps Can Help Visualize Manufacturing KPIs

Machine monitoring tools are a highly effective way of measuring your manufacturing KPIs. But it’s easier to keep track of production goals if frontline engineers can access data quickly and conveniently.