Office Buildings

Interiors

Corporate interiors

Every interior that we create is a strategic solution to a set of problems identified by their users. 

Companies like AstraTech need to integrate high-end corporate offices with high-tech pilot manufacturing in the same building. Boston Medical Center's HealthNet Plan needed to integrate collaborative workspaces with the rigorous privacy requirements of behavioral health and patient records. In both cases, our design solutions supported their corporate goals.

Showrooms

Showrooms present a unique opportunity to create a signature image for a manufacturer and/or sales organization. 

These images reflect the work of two iconic manufacturers in the office interiors marketplace and the sales organizations that support them. We created a display for DIRTT in the Creative Office Pavilion showroom and a showroom for Geiger INternational, both at the boston Design Center.

Custom Interiors

The Cunard Building on State Street in Boston offered a truly unique opportunity. This building served as the original U.S. headquarters for Cunard Lines, before its move to New York.

This project includes a large number of custom-designed and artisan-made elements, including a unique circular stair, wood floors imported from Australia, cabinet knobs bearing navigation maps of the ports served by Cunard and a custom carpet that includes a vine motif that was copied from the buildings security gates that we also designed.

Dining and Hospitality

Retail

Different Strokes

Retail is theater. It tells the story of the company that runs it and reflects the desires and identities of its customers. NTB (formerly NTW, a unit of Sears) sells tires and automotive services. Our design for their stores is clean and muscular. That doesn't mean that the customers of Wilderness House are not muscular, but perhaps we can call their brand more balanced. And one of the hallmarks of the WH store is its dressing rooms scattered around the store and modeled on ice-fishing shacks. Meanwhile, the design for Ann Taylor Loft is subtle, a simple container for the clothing that is the star of the show.

Multi-Family Housing

Remember that it's home

We don't "do" single family homes, but we take the same care that goes into designing unique homes when we design apartment buildings and condominiums. An apartment is no less a home than a mansion is. It may be smaller but it is that shelter that lets us all recharge at the end of a busy day and is the "place" that our families will remember as they grow and move out into the world. 

Healthcare

Design for health

We've all experienced medical and health services settings that are cold and cramped, populated with months-old magazines that should have been recycled months or even years ago.

Morris Architects strives to create healthcare environments that are interesting and comforting. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the magazines.

Landscapes

landscapes

Our work in landscape design is driven by a desire to create spaces that support and celebrate the human spirit while recognizing the importance of observing our place in the natural world. 

When we started the design of the landscape at Dolan Green, there was a blank slate. The site had been a former school-yard and there was but one tree on 2 1/2 acres. It is now populated by mature trees, paths and hidden garden as well as landscaped courtyards at each of the town-homes.

At Citizen's Park (also known as Busy Bend Park) we worked with civil engineering firm, Allen and Major. Our design concept included use of a rock outcropping as the primary element of a waterfall, thereby adding a comforting sound to mask the traffic of the busy intersection on which it faces. At the NTW (NTB) store on Needham Street in Newton Highlands, we proposed to eliminate parking and a lengthy curb cut in front of the building and replace it with landscaping, improving the streetscape.

Labs, Manufacturing and Industrial

Elements of manufacturing

Because of the proprietary (and sometimes national security) nature of much of the manufacturing and lab space we design, we can only show you vignettes of our work, but you will be impressed by our understanding that each project requires that we learn about your processes and products. For one client we design a ballistics range for testing parts made to deflect ordinance aimed at Navy ships. For another, we designed a special environment for making zirconium parts, because zirconium in the powder form used in manufacturing becomes a solid mass when exposed to even small amounts of humidity.

Automotive

Selling cars

Morris Architects has designed several car dealerships and automotive service facilities. Our clients have included Boston Volvo, Honda Village, several locations for NTB (formerly NTW) and several locations for Safelite Autoglass, including two regional distribution centers.

National Security

Agency Liaison

Working in the public realm...

We have had extensive experience working with public agencies and community groups: From achieving a unique certificate of need from the Massachusetts Public Health Council during the moratorium of the mid-seventies, to writing zoning by-laws and ordinances for cities and towns throughout the Northeast, to developing rules and design standards for smart growth districts, we have successfully created new rules and laws which have changed the face of our communities.