City Grill

Joseph Naughton
Senior Vice President, New England Regional Manager
Hill International

Naughton points to the recently completed $26-million renovation of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End neighborhood as an “indicator of a very strong economy when institutions like that are receiving donations of the kind they just received.”

Naughton says his office has hit its goal to increase revenue by approximately 10% through the year’s first quarter. “We are seeing an awful lot of requests for proposals for a variety of different types of projects,” he says.

The higher education sector, which accounts for up to 60% of Hill’s work in the area, is particularly hot. Hill is serving as the owner’s project manager for Northeastern University’s $205-million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. The project’s second phase includes a 317-ft-long, $41-million pedestrian bridge spanning a 107-ft-wide railroad bed that bisects the school’s campus.

Naughton says the institutional sector could help the Boston area withstand a market correction. “Even in down years, there are institutions in the area that look at that as an opportunity,” he says.

And while land is becoming scarce in the popular Seaport District, Naughton says renovation work will continue “as leases expire and new tenants come in and other ones go out.”

Firm in Focus

Structure Tone Boston
711 Atlantic Ave., Boston
Office Leader: David Kempton, Senior Regional Vice President
Employees: 120
Founded: 1986
Catch all: Structure Tone’s Boston team focuses on corporate interior fit-outs, from small upgrades to multimillion-dollar new corporate headquarters.

The firm has worked with major technology companies that have relocated workplaces in downtown Boston to “reflect their brand and attract their industry’s top talent,” Structure Tone says. For instance, fantasy sports and sports betting company DraftKings recently united two separate floor plates into a 100,000-sq-ft workplace to create one of the largest single-floor workplaces in Boston.

Structure Tone also works on major hotel renovations, life sciences facilities and higher education interiors. The company recently expanded into New Hampshire, where its Salem office leads interior and ground-up projects in the higher education, commercial and local and state government markets.