Blue Sky Center
with SMMA
Photo Credit: Erin Little
As an integrated, multi-disciplinary design firm, SMMA understands firsthand how to guide clients through complex renovations, balancing thoughtful, functional design with market value and modern workplace advantages.
Nordblom Company’s Blue Sky Center in Burlington, MA exemplifies this expertise and collaboration, elevating a once-outdated amenity center into a timeless destination that attains and attracts tenants, focusing on wellness, employee experience, convenience, and community.
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
Nordblom, an owner and developer based in Greater Boston and repeat client of ours, recognized that where and how people work can directly shape their quality of life. This project was driven by that intention, with the goal of creating amenity-rich environments that offer meaningful experiences and elevate the everyday for employees.
Our interior design team focused on crafting a seamless, cohesive environment that brings these experience-driven spaces to life, helping to attract a diverse mix of companies and support long-term occupancy.
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
Walking into the main concourse of Blue Sky Center, you are welcomed by a bright, serene open space functioning as the heart of the redesign. The two-story space is a complete refresh featuring warm oak wood flooring, abundant natural light, calming wall graphics, and biophilic elements. Casual, communal seating invites users to pause for a call or relax, while double-sided benches atop textural rugs anchor the concourse, creating a comfortable place to linger and catch up with friends and colleagues.
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
The lounges and intimate nooks lean into a catered hospitality-driven atmosphere with comfortable seating and neutral color palettes, emphasizing textural accents such as a tiled fireplace and built in, backlit wood cabinets and shelving.
“Our whole approach is rooted in hospitality and a lot of what we did with this project was to create this feeling”, says Julia Arsenault, Director of Commercial Property Management at Nordblom Company. “If you look at the spaces around you, the colors, the furniture, the mood that we're trying to create is based on hospitality and we aim to create a space where people would feel that they're not just passing through it, that they're welcome here, they're excited to be here.”
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
On the other side of the fireplace nook, the raised platform doubles as a stage, ready to host performances and live music events.
Communal high tops, bistro seating, made-to-order dishes, and grab-and-go meals make the cafe inviting, flexible, and efficient depending on the employee’s needs.
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
Last, but certainly not least, is the brand-new 8,000 SF fitness center. Previously located in a different building, we wanted to bring this high-demand space into the main amenity center. The design includes spa-quality locker rooms, specialized studios for cycling and barre, and an open turf area. The space is accented with organic earth tones including wellness-inspired wall graphics, natural wood paneling, and large skylights that fill the space with light. The center is elevated with sleek, linear light fixtures arranged in a bold zigzag formation, introducing movement and energy into space.
Photo Credit: Arielly Photography
Blue Sky Center functions as a “college campus" for corporations, serving as a catalyst for cross-company interaction. Shared dining areas and gaming zones encourage employees from different firms to interact in a way they wouldn't in a traditional, isolated office campus. Whether employees are drinking their espresso in the bistro in the morning, jumping on a Peloton for a lunch-time workout, or meeting others in the cozy fireplace lounge, each space lends itself to interaction, experience, and choice.
Designer Monologues the Podcast from IIDA New England with your host Brett Berry is officially LIVE!! On this show, we’ll share the stories behind the design of repurposing, developing and reshaping our communities. Incubated from the minds and skills of New England’s talented design community, you’ll hear how visual inspiration can come from nature, our history, current trends and more as we take you on a story-telling journey behind design.
Check out the latest episode here!
