One of the many special things about CBT Architects is the collegial spirit. We have many different groups and practices within the 200-person firm; and whether or not you work for the Workplace Interiors group or on Urban Design Master Planning, we make sure that all employees find the time to appreciate the work of their colleagues and peers. After all, we all share the same principles and goals; design is at the heart of our business and the way we live our lives.

They are what we like to call First Thursdays. At the end of the day on the first Thursday of every month, a different team at CBT will find a creative and interactive way to showcase their recently completed projects, what they have in progress and what they’re gearing up for. Most recently, it was CBT’s Asset Strategy & Building Repositioning group that I lead who hosted First Thursday.

I love my job for many reasons, but one of the most exciting aspects right now is having the opportunity to work on projects that are drastically different, not just in terms of size and scope, but their location as well. Our now 30+ person team – which my colleagues probably did not realize has grown exponentially from 5 to 30 employees in the last year – is currently working on an impressive 25+ projects in downtown Boston and the Greater Boston area, as well as others around the globe. This lent itself to what we believed would be a perfect “around the world” type of experience; we transformed sections of the office into different geographic locations where projects are based and gave everyone a Passport to travel around and explore what each one had to offer.

For example, in Charlestown, where we are currently working on repositioning the 100-year-old building that housed the famous Schrafft’s Candy Factory, our project leader served as a tour guide and walked all visitors through the details of the project. When someone left one neighborhood, their passport would be stamped and they would move on to their next destination. Each person’s journey continued on to places like Boston’s Financial District where they learned about our 53 State project, suburbs like  Burlington where they were educated on our Corporate Drive job, all the way to Canada where they saw the exciting work we will soon be doing to reposition the former Blackberry data center and office complex into a revitalized, contemporary office campus. And don’t worry – there was a plethora of food and refreshments, all of which were aligned with the theme of different projects and their location.

As you can imagine, First Thursdays have become very popular among CBT employees. What the Asset Strategy & Building Repositioning team tried to do is create an interactive, fun atmosphere that informed people of the significant impact the team is making across neighborhoods where many of us live, work and play. It was an honor to share the creative spirit of our team’s work with all of our other colleagues in such a unique, entertaining and collaborative fashion.