Company Profile
SMMA I Symmes Maini & McKee Associates
Company Overview
SMMA is an integrated design firm providing a multi-disciplined approach to the discovery and execution of innovative design solutions. Founded in 1955, the firm has evolved into one of the area’s leading design firms consistently ranked among the top U.S. design firms by Architectural Record, Interior Design, McGraw-Hill/ENR and Building, Design + Construction magazines. Through our nearly 200 professionals and three locations in Cambridge, MA, Providence, RI and Chapel Hill, NC—SMMA offers a full range of architectural, interior, planning, and engineering services.
Our value lies within the breadth and flexibility of our service offerings and the firm’s unique ability to provide customized design solutions that efficiently meet both the needs and aspirations of each client. We seek to maximize our value through early involvement in each project—focusing on understanding our client’s business and institutional objectives, while working collaboratively with our partners to develop innovative solutions, high-performing assets, award-winning design, and predictable outcomes.
The success of SMMA begins with a strong collaborative mind-set focused on delivering personalized service to our clients every day. Above all else, our success is due to the professionalism and expertise of our people, and the manner by which they build and foster long term client relationships.
Company History
As our first half-century reflects, SMMA has always thrived on change.
Beginnings
In 1955 two MIT engineering graduates, Parker Symmes '47 and William L. Maini '51, founded the firm. Three years later, when a graduate architect from Rensselaer, Jon McKee '49, joined them, Symmes Maini & McKee was established.
Early design commissions included distribution, light manufacturing, and airfreight facility projects at Logan Airport, a flight kitchen for United Airlines, and an office building for Northeast Airlines. The company's "spirits" were lifted with distribution facilities for the liquor industry, including Seagrams. The Towns of Framingham and Lexington MA, and West Hartford CT awarded the firm projects that established our early reputation as designers of municipal ice-skating arenas.
Early Years
SMMA grew from 30 to 90 people. Larger and more diverse design commissions included the Burlington Mall (as associated architects and engineers) and work for First National Bank of Boston that led to over 100,000sf of new and renovated space for offices, data processing, dining, and recreation at their man campus. In the early 1970s, we began the first of over 60 projects with L.L. Bean, starting with a distribution center and then involving new stores and additions in Freeport, ME.
Our founders' dream of designing institutional projects was realized when we began flagship microelectronics and plasma fusion R&D projects at MIT, and the first of nearly 30 projects - including dormitories, offices, a concert hall, and a clinic - for Boston University. SMMA developed a close-knit family spirit with a reputation for providing strong architectural and engineering design and solid service for repeat clients.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Route 128 Technology Belt expansion around Boston saw SMMA serve rapidly-growing, regional high tech clients - Digital, Wang, Raytheon, Analog Devices, Lockheed Sanders, Dupont/New England Nuclear, New England Telephone - as well as RCA, a national client. This same period brought new commissions for the design of suburban office buildings, including the Lexington Corporate Center in Lexington, MA for Boston Properties; Reservoir Place, a 535,000 sf aluminum-clad office building in Waltham, MA; offices and a data center for UNUM in Portland, ME; and the original BayBank Tower in Burlington, MA.
In 1979, our first historic restoration/renovation project transformed the Cambridge Atheneum Building, built in 1892 facing the Charles River and Longfellow Bridge, into a distinctive office facility with a restaurant and racquetball club. Original 1892 architectural drawings had shown a representation of Athena gracing one roof pediment, but the design had never been implemented. At our urging, the statue was finally commissioned, so that today the 15-foot Greek goddess is visible from Boston and the building has become a landmark.
Closer to Harvard Square, SMMA completed a dramatic renovation of 1280 Massachusetts Avenue. The award-winning, 47000sf mixed use project has been cited by Pulitzer-prize winning critic Robert Campbell as a contemporary design that successfully fits into traditional Cambridge architectural context. Not far away, SMMA designed and occupied a new office building at 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, where we continue today.
The 90s
In the 90s SMMA’s corporate and technology work grew and the firm expanded in education markets. MIT, IBM, Harris/Fairchild Semiconductor, and Analog Devices needed sophisticated facilities for research and manufacturing. EMC, Nortel, Nokia, Compaq and UNUM joined SMMA’s Fortune 500 client list. Meanwhile the firm's design profile was enhanced by another iconic Cambridge historic preservation/renovation project - the Farwell-Read Block in Harvard Square, at the request of long-standing client Cambridge Savings Bank.
Our academic clients multiplied with public schools in Marblehead, Norton, and Andover MA; dormitories at Endicott College in Massachusetts and St. Joseph's College in Maine; laboratory science buildings at the University of Maine/Orono and the University of Southern Maine; an Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center/ATMC for Mass Development and the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth; and campus master planning at the University of New England in Biddeford and Portland, ME. Farther afield, we completed state-of-the-art buildings in microstructure research for The Ohio State University and University of Maryland.
The 00s
SMMA continues to add prestigious new names to a client list that reflects New England's future. We have completed a master plan for Bose Corporation, new laboratory facilities for Wyeth and Draper Lab, luxury condominiums andmixed-use development for Catamount Management, and eight major high schools in Massachusetts. Under construction right now is a new headquarters in Providence for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, following that competed for Fortune 500 firm Cox Communications. Those developments, and multiple projects for Providence College, encouraged opening of an office in Providence in May 2008.
Under the stewardship of our third generation of leaders, we are committed to our staff, our clients, and our future. We are passionate about design and service excellence. And we are crafting our next half century to be at least as exciting as our first.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
SMMA Named as Top Small Company Workplace by Inc. Magazine
Inc. Magazine and Winning Workplaces recognized the employee practices and workplace culture of SMMA, naming the Cambridge-based design firm as one of the Top 50 Small Company Workplaces and featuring the company in the magazine’s June 2011 issue. The Top Workplace competition annually recognizes the nation’s best small and mid-sized company work environments.