Designed to showcase Unispace’s integrated approach, the space seamlessly blends strategy, architecture, and construction. It reintroduces Unispace to Boston in a bold, intentional way, functioning as both a high-performance workplace and real-world project showcase.
At a Glance:
- Reintroducing the Unispace brand to Boston
- A diverse mix of quiet zones, collaboration spaces, phone rooms, wellness areas, and social hubs
- Delivered on a tight budget and schedule using Unispace's integrated methodology
- Balanced global brand standards with Boston's Architectural heritage
- Achieved a 2-Star Fitwel certificate, embedding wellness into daily experience
The design intent centered around creating a flexible, inclusive environment that supports multiple workstyles and incorporates lessons learned from Unispace’s New York City studio. Prioritizing user experience over density, this design optimizes functionality, acoustics, and technology. Seamless transitions between spaces for focused work, collaboration, and social interaction foster a vibrant and engaging workplace.
Our design team prioritized showcasing Unispace’s global brand while infusing local character, incorporating local art that celebrates the city’s architectural heritage and culture. The space acts as a living demonstration of how our interdisciplinary teams integrate strategy insights into each design decision, maintaining team performance at the forefront.
With a strict budget and a tight schedule, the Boston team leveraged Unispace’s in-house methodology. With constant collaboration between strategy, design, and construction teams under one roof, the stringent project timeline and budget remained intact throughout with no sacrifice to design integrity.
Project Story
Our new Boston studio redefines how modern offices are designed and built. Instead of planning for fixed headcounts or static layouts, the studio embraces agility, challenging traditional workplace models. It prioritizes flexibility, vibrancy, and performance, regardless of whether occupancy expands or contracts. Using proprietary space-planning ratios, our designers balanced considerations for extroverted and introverted work styles, ensuring peak functionality and energy at any scale.
Employee Experience
Employee experience was at the heart of every decision. A diverse mix of quiet zones, collaboration spaces, phone rooms, wellness zones, and social areas allows individuals to choose environments, technology and posture that best support their work. Enhanced acoustics, improved daylight access, straightforward technology, and clear behavioral zoning create a workplace that comfortably supports focus and collaboration.
Sustainability, Health & Wellbeing
The studio earned a 2-Star Fitwel certification by holding wellness at the center of daily experience. Physical features like adjustable lighting, modular furniture, and improved air quality serve in tandem with principles reducing single-use plastics and healthy snacks to promote healthier outcomes. The space also prioritizes non-tangible aspects of well-being by having a team leader trained in mental health, CPR, and emergency response.
Design Excellence
Inspired by Boston’s historic architecture, the design emphasizes bespoke craftsmanship. Blending the city’s rich tradition with modern innovation creates a vibrant contrast between historic foundations and cutting-edge design. The workspace honors Boston’s winding streets and colonial charm through rich wood tones, brick patterns, classic wainscoting, and antique-inspired furnishings, all while maintaining Unispace’s core brand colors. Traditional detailing paired with modern materials creates warmth, clarity, and longevity.
Community Impact & Inclusion
Our company-wide Art for Impact initiative is rooted in supporting local creatives and strengthening community connections. In Boston, we interpreted this through an international coffee mug procurement program, purchasing directly from regional artisans near each of our global studios. Each handcrafted mug reflects local culture and directly supports independent craftspeople.
Productivity, Workplace Performance, and Engagement
To address common barriers to performance, the design prioritizes acoustic excellence and functional zoning. Enhanced acoustic separation, gasketed glass meeting rooms, and optimized room placement prevent sound leakage and support the high volume of back-to-back video calls typical of modern workflows. Tailored space-types enable teams to transition seamlessly between heads-down focus work and active collaboration, improving daily usability and overall productivity.
Employee engagement was central to the project’s success, with insights from engagement surveys and lessons learned from the recently fit-out New York studio supported in shaping key design decisions. One clear takeaway was the need for more phone rooms, thoughtfully equipped with cameras and dual monitors to support effective virtual collaboration. We also learned that grouping like spaces together promotes visibility, informal interactions, and stronger connection between diverse teams.
Boston’s studio houses a wider range of internal functions than New York, including finance, marketing and legal alongside design and construction. This diversity required a more nuanced approach to planning ensuring each team’s functional needs were met while still fostering a unified studio culture. This inclusive process fostered a deep sense of ownership, resulting in the Boston studio emerging as the most positively received office Unispace has built in a decade. To ensure continuous improvement, post-occupancy feedback was collected, analyzed, and shared with the global team to inform future workplace strategies.
