ENR’s New England Top Design Firms 2020

Whenever our team receives recognition and accolades for the work we do we like to reflect on the work we’ve done that has brought us where we are today.  We also view them as a positive form of validation for the philosophy we built 18 years ago that still holds strong today. When Nik and I started CUBE 3 in Lawrence, MA, we had just a few core ideas that we wanted to stay focused on, which we knew would separate us from other design firms in the greater Boston area: design innovation and creativity, flexibility, and client responsiveness.

Our first large project was in the student-housing sector with on-campus housing at University of Louisiana at Monroe. And it was during this time where we really started to think about an approach that could reshape the ways students lived on campuses around the country.

Quickly thereafter we won a contract for a new hospital—Elliot Health systems in Manchester, NH—which was a truly unique, developer led, major medical facility delivered on behalf of a large healthcare system.  Innovation in delivery and approach allowed for exciting design, but delivered without the traditional institutional baggage.

It was clear to us that we were onto something, and we continued to develop this new way of approaching projects for multifamily residential, student housing / academic, hospitality and corporate environments.

Our teams were so pleased to learn of the recent ENR New England rankings, where CUBE 3 was recognized as #38 overall and #1 in Multi-Family, that the way we think has really taken hold of that sector. We take great pride in being known as the innovators – pushing the envelope in several new ways including bringing our corporate and student housing experience and thought leadership to bear on creating new living environments for market rate housing, and pushing boundaries of code and approach on how these buildings could be designed. Ours were among the first to push 5 floor wood frame, then 6 floor, and now high-rise wood frame projects.  We were also among the first to design and execute mid-rise light gauge projects, and now exploring the limits of height with projects pushing 90 floors.

CUBE 3 was founded on creative, out of the box thinking, both from a design leadership perspective and from a process standpoint, and our goal is to continue this trend, pushing even more strongly into our other core sectors including commercial office space, academic, and health care, to expand and grow the positive impact we can have on the built environment.

We think about CUBE 3 as a firm that nourishes and encourages the kinds of innovative ideas that change the places that we live, work and play.

– Brian O’Connor, AIA
Founding Partner