Aquent Offices – Boston

Huntsman Architectural Group designed the offices of employment agency Aquent, located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Aquent is the world’s leading marketing, web, and creative staffing agency. For its Boston headquarters, Aquent took the opportunity to explore a different approach to work settings: what if employees could work anywhere, have different environments to choose from, and not be department-driven? With no assigned workspaces for staff, Aquent desired a space that maintains a holistic perspective on the workplace viewed as one shared space and not individually owned.

The design team developed a parti to transform the building footprint bifurcated by a central atrium by using popular building forms. A series of destinations offer varying social and focused work and leisure settings. Each has a unique personality such as a terrace, pergola, back porch, library, general store, makeshift huts and start-up garage. The design of these capture a blend of the modern and natural, and recall the sort of place one would seek out in a campus atmosphere.

Introducing the natural environment was another client goal; by incorporating spaces designed to evoke the outdoors, the design team detailed them using natural materials such as timber beams, lattice work panels, and oversized wood sliding doors. A concierge desk replaces the usual reception, and an open café provides diverse work settings and amenities for guests and employees alike.

Design: Huntsman Architectural Group
Project Team: Bill Puetz (Principal-in-Charge), Sandra Tripp (Project Director), Elisabeth Betgilan (Project Designer), Elise Beaty (Project Architect), Carmen Seger, Rebecca Frederick (Designers), Ladis Ramirez (Job Captain)
Photography: Trent Bell Photography