• Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • RSS
  • Sign In
  • My Account
High-Profile MonthlyNew England Facilities Development News
  • All News
      • Up Front
      • Groundbreaking
      • Topping Off
      • Ribbon Cutting
      • View All Up Front Stories
      • PXL_20230309_153128404Ground Broken on $40M Production Facility in Connecticut
      • Special Features
      • Contributor
      • Green
      • J.E.D.I.
      • Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing (MEP)
      • Vision
      • Women In Construction
      • Regions
      • Connecticut
      • Northern New England
      • Popular Sectors
      • Cannabis
      • Corporate
      • Education
      • Healthcare
      • Interiors
      • Landscape/Civil
      • Life Science
      • Multi Residential
      • Restoration/Renovation
      • Retail/Hospitality
      • Senior/Assisted Living
      • Technology & Innovation
      • Other News
      • Awards
      • Community
      • COVID-19
      • Mixed-use
      • Municipal
      • National/International
      • Organizations and Events
      • People
      • Philanthropy
      • Products and Services
      • Real Estate
      • Training and Recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Membership
  • Next Issue
  • Archive
  • Advertise
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Industry Events
    • A/E/C Associations
High-Profile Monthly
  • All News
      • Up Front
      • Groundbreaking
      • Topping Off
      • Ribbon Cutting
      • View All Up Front Stories
      • PXL_20230309_153128404Ground Broken on $40M Production Facility in Connecticut
      • Special Features
      • Contributor
      • Green
      • J.E.D.I.
      • Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing (MEP)
      • Vision
      • Women In Construction
      • Regions
      • Connecticut
      • Northern New England
      • Popular Sectors
      • Cannabis
      • Corporate
      • Education
      • Healthcare
      • Interiors
      • Landscape/Civil
      • Life Science
      • Multi Residential
      • Restoration/Renovation
      • Retail/Hospitality
      • Senior/Assisted Living
      • Technology & Innovation
      • Other News
      • Awards
      • Community
      • COVID-19
      • Mixed-use
      • Municipal
      • National/International
      • Organizations and Events
      • People
      • Philanthropy
      • Products and Services
      • Real Estate
      • Training and Recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Membership
  • Next Issue
  • Archive
  • Advertise
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Industry Events
    • A/E/C Associations
Contributor • Trends and Hot Topics

A Modern-Day Office Space and the New Role of a Millwork Subcontractor

January 21, 2016
Grant Caldwell

Grant Caldwell

by Grant Caldwell

As the economy in Boston continues to surge, the demand for innovative and inspiring workspaces is growing exponentially. Boston has attracted some of the world’s leading companies in technology, finance, and business who are all competing for top talent on a global level. In addition to the massive influx of new construction in the Seaport District that many of these new-to-Boston companies are calling home, many are also occupying existing spaces, requiring complete gut renovations of tens and even hundreds of thousands of square feet. In addition, many existing Boston-based companies are completing extensive renovations to stay on the competitive edge.

The modern-day workspace has changed dramatically from the old miles of rows of cubicles surrounded by private executive offices and conference rooms. You no longer step off the elevator into a dull lobby with the ordinary finishes of the past. Today, businesses want open areas where employees can collaborate and share ideas and information. They want bright, loud spaces that inspire excitement and innovation. Employees no longer gather around the water cooler, they gather around the coffee bar or in the lounge or café. Demand for talented employees is fierce, and tenant interior spaces are being designed to offer comforts and amenities that you would not have dreamed of seeing in a work place years ago.

Lobby at Mathworks

Lobby at Mathworks

Businesses have focused their attention on creating workspaces that are designed for the employee and have hired the top architects and designers to do so. The competition for progressively more custom and unique designs has opened the floodgates, and tenant interior projects are filled with millions, and often tens of millions, of dollars of custom millwork features and specialty items. With this ever-changing list of specialties, construction managers are at a loss for qualified subcontractors and are turning to the millwork firms to group all of these finishes into one package.

Over the years, the scope of an architectural millwork package has changed and become much more diverse. At one point, the average millwork scope would consist of primarily wood products, such as trim, doors, cabinets, wall panels, and countertops. Today, the millworker is called on to provide a vast variety of specialty items including glass products, decorative metals, stone, acrylic, decorative and functional fabrics, operable partitions, and much more. Design trends have changed, and high-end tenant interior spaces now require more integration of a much larger variety of products and materials.

Looking back, there is also a definitive line in the trends of certain materials and designs. Similar to the trends in the names of new babies, it is not uncommon to have a handful of massive millwork projects get awarded simultaneously with the exact same wood species. Currently, rift white oak is extremely popular, where a few years back it was common to see plain sawn maple. Plastic laminate countertops were also once the standard in corporate offices, where now it is more common to see solid surface (i.e., Corian) and stone or quartz. Manufacturers and suppliers of these products are often switching gears to keep up with quickly shifting demands.

Architectural millwork firms are also constantly faced with learning about new products: how they react to custom fabrication, and how well they do, or do not, integrate with other materials. In addition, many of these products cannot be manufactured with traditional techniques and machinery. The bar has been raised, and the group that can compete at this level of quality, complexity, and size, while working within unimaginable time constraints, is very small in the Boston market.

It is truly an exciting time to be part of one of the hottest construction markets in the world. Businesses are making large investments into their office spaces, and world-class architects and designers are being set loose. Few millwork firms can keep up with their demands for the highest level of quality, and even fewer have the ability to execute their cutting-edge designs. The elite few that are capable, are honored with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to create some of the most impressive tenant interior spaces ever produced.

p216
    FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail

You may also like

Contributor • Life Science • MEP

Developing a Quality Base Building...

March 23, 2023
Contributor • MEP

Sprinkler Design Challenges for...

March 22, 2023
Contributor • Education

Data and Demographics: Driving the...

March 8, 2023
Contributor • Education

2023 Update from SCUP North...

March 8, 2023
Contributor • Education

A Message from SCUP President...

March 8, 2023
Contributor • Education

Linking Mission-infused Campus...

March 2, 2023
Contributor • Education

Designing Equitable Experiences...

February 28, 2023
Contributor • Education

Academia Driving Deployment of...

February 28, 2023

View the March 2023 issue!

Read the WIC 2023 Supplement!

Read HP’s 25th Anniversary Issue now!

Check out the 2022 Annual Green Supplement!

Read HP’s 2022 MEP issue!

Read our annual supplements!

  • Green2022.png
  • WIC2023.png
  • MEP2022.png
  • Vision-2019.png

HIGH-PROFILE MONTHLY
615 School St.
Pembroke, MA  02359
Phone: 781 294 4530
Fax:  781 293 5821
info@high-profile.com

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • My Account

Stay Informed

Sign up for Fast Facts Friday, our weekly e-newsletter, and stay up-to-date with the latest industry news!

Sign up
Subscribe to High-Profile Monthly to receive an email notice of each new article!
Loading

Copyright © 2023 High-Profile Monthly.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • RSS
  • Sign In
  • My Account