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G A B R I E L JOHN MASSA ‘85 Pro fe ss i o n al Ach ievem en t Award
Gabriel Massa founded Massa Multimedia Architecture (MMA) in 1996. For almost quarter of a century, MMA has grown consistently every, both in size, number of nationally renowned clients and accolades. Gabe has managed and morphed MMA into a nationally recognized design firm with extensive in-house experience in a wide array of industries that range from Retail, Educational, Healthcare and Mixed-Use developments. In each of these defined markets, MMA has developed a portfolio that showcases a primary concentration of designing, entitling and developing projects in both urban and suburban environments. At MMA, Gabe spends most of his days in the design studio, working side-by-side with the design and entitlement teams, where he is fully involved in the intricacies and compositions of almost all the designs. Two years later, MMA began to make history. In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled in the Abbott vs. Burke legislation that the schools in 30 of the state’s neediest districts (or Abbott Districts) needed rebuilding. The Legislature in July 2000 enacted Executive Order #24 “The Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act. Subsequently, MMA was the first firm to have a contract assumed by the NJEDA and the first and second assumed contract by the NJSCC (now the NJSDA). This in turn enabled The Samuel Smith Early Childhood Center (photo on left) in Burlington to make history. It became the State’s First Early Childhood Center (ECC) Constructed under the ACT, achieving successful completion, all in recording-breaking time. In 2006, Gabe initiated a Joint Venture with world renowned Architectural Firm of Michael Graves, capitalizing on his firm’s K-12 expertise in the region and Graves’ reputation as a world-renowned architect. Since that time, Graves/MMA have been collaborating on numerous vertical K-12 schools throughout New York City amounting to well over $500 million in construction costs. The MGA/MMA Joint Venture projects include PS 16 in Paterson, NJ, PS 42 and PS 24 in Queens, NY, PS 290Q in Queens, as well as PS343M in Manhattan and PS 671 in Queens, NY. https://www.mma-architects.com/education-design/ Besides Gabe’s focus on the educational market sector, his vision was to expand and add essential services like pharmacy and grocery. His persistence quickly became reality as MMA was selected by CVS/pharmacy to be one of their 30 national design firms. Soon thereafter, MMA was chosen to roll-out their new store program in New York City. As projects were completed, and stores began to open, CVS quickly took notice of Gabe and MMA’s talented designers and they were selected to design their new prototype. To-date, he has completed over 1000 projects throughout the Northeast and the US, and of the original 30 firms, remains the only design firm still working with CVS. In an effort to further expand MMA’s healthcare clientele, Gabe acquired an established healthcare design firm. In the ever-changing climate of Healthcare design and development, Gabe noticed that one aspect stood out as a true challenge to any Owner. How do you meet your census needs with ever increasing room size requirements set by industry standards and hospitals while only having a limited amount of space to expand? MMA was tasked with the challenge of designing a new 60 bed ICU in an existing space that conventionally could only support 40 beds. MMA’s design team culled from its vast database of research and evidence-based design calculations and came to one conclusion. It was possible.
The design was coined the HYPERPOD™. An MMA Registered Trademark Design. https://www.mma-architects. com/hyperpod-case-study/ Simultaneously, Gabe had successfully presented his firm’s retail qualifications to the world’s largest retailer: Walmart. In representing Walmart for almost 15 years, he has entitled, designed and built some of the most difficult projects in Walmart’s fleet. In DC we have worked on projects that have revitalized a once prominent transportation hub, that was forgotten. We also assisted in helping to develop a new community while opening the Georgia Avenue store in Downtown DC (photo on right), which now brings options to customers that they have never had before. The stores in DC were hand selected to be at the Gateways, which required them to not only tie to the city roots, but the outlying communities simultaneously. Many of these projects have become integrally woven into the core urban fabrics of these communities. One of his greatest successes of these projects resulted in the first LEED Silver & LEED Certified Walmart building projects in the world for their Categories. Had Capital Gateway actually put the shovel in the ground after permitting, Walmart would have achieved LEED Gold Certification, another first. LB Johnson, Walmart’s VP of US Realty Operations, announced the Reinvention Program at the ICSC in Atlanta on October 23rd, 2018, via his keynote address. As soon as news got out, it went viral. Walmart was trying to transform the retail industry and we are so glad to have the opportunity to help them in their remarkable journey. Now Walmart refers to MMA as their Chief Creative Consultant responsible for Customer Expertise and Community Engagement. Walmart’s Reimagined vision was intended to encourage sound and quality development in the community Walmart & Sam’s serves. The design and orientation of new shopping centers are reinforced to be pedestrian oriented and special streetscape improvements are encouraged to be established to create rich, and enjoyable public and private spaces. The goal is to make the centers not only pedestrian and public transportation friendly, but walkable, bikeable, and designed in the spirit of sustainable design. Every reimaged site requires connectivity to the main store. Connectivity is the key essential component! Gabe was once again pushing the design envelope in an effort be both creative, innovative and environmentally conscious, as he reimagined design of the stores to be made of containers. This option offered a unique design approach. https://vimeo. com/295653749 September 13, 2019, MMA was part of another “First”: Walmart Health launched its first Primary Care Clinic in Dallas, GA. (photo on right) Walmart was able to utilize its retail know-how to design an integrated and consumer friendly experience. Walmart Health offerings include a very diverse set of services under one roof giving Walmart customers and their patients the opportunity to easily access what they need, whenever they need it. Services include cost effective and comprehensive primary care including behavioral health, telehealth, dental, phlebotomy, imaging services, audiology, community health (nutritional services, fitness), health insurance education, clinical and optical services and a newly designed state of the art vision sales and pharmacy. As a proponent of Modular Construction long before it became popular, Gabe design approach allows these Health Clinics to be constructed in record time. With an average square footage of between 6000-7500 SF, using integrated magnetic panels has enable a space to be built out in under 2 weeks. With a vacuum waste system incorporated into the panels, there was no need for trenching, thereby significantly reducing construction time. https://www.mma-architects.com/walmart-health-case-study/
As technology was beginning to be integrated into everyday architectural design, Gabe knew that he wanted to be a leader, and not a follower. In the true understanding of Multimedia, Gabe knows that a client can walk through our door and get everything they need for any project. In addition to all the usual architectural needs, they can get state-of-the-art renderings without having to send them overseas. More than just animations, we are directing and producing movies as part of a complete branding and wayfinding package, or a website with custom coding and features like area demographics and an interactive leasing plan for the leasing team. They can get a Virtual Reality tour of the site and experience it without ever putting a shovel in the ground. We can set up all social media channels for the project and ensure consistent branding across all platforms. They can get Video marketing for the project to bring to the upcoming trade show. They can get a custom animation of their logo or have us develop email marketing templates for their subscribers. All of this under one roof instead of dealing with several outside vendors makes this so easy for our clients. MMA’s success and reputation quickly began to be noticed. MMA was selected as #8 of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Architecture Companies by Fast Company for our “Out of the Big Box” approach to retail design. Most recently. Then in 2020, we were once again recognized for by Fast Company our innovative and ground-breaking design last year as a finalist of Most Innovative Health Projects in 2020 for our Walmart Health Clinics. : https://www.fastcompany.com/90547947/health-innovation-by-design-2020 These are but 2 of the many accolades received by Gabe and MMA which include Architectural Record, ENR and BD+C to name a few. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
MMA Ranks 239th Nationwide on the List of Top 300 Architecture Firms - Arch. Record 2020 MMA ranks 152nd on the NJBIZ List of Top 250 Privately Held Companies 2020 Finalist for the Fast Company 2020 Innovation by Design Awards – Walmart Health 2020 MMA ranks #27 on The BD+C List of Top Retail Sector Architecture Firms 2020 MMA ranks #104 on The BD+C List of Top 155 Architecture Firms 2020 MMA ranks #82 on the BD+C’s List of Top 155 in Healthcare Architecture and AE Firms 2020 MMA ranks 99th on the List of Top 190 Reconstruction Sector Giants 2020 MMA ranks #71 on the BD+C’s List of Top 145 K-12 Educational Architecture and AE Firms 2020 296th Top 300 Architectural Firms - Architectural Record 2019 124th Top 150 Architectural Firms - BD+C 2019 99th Top 140 K-12 School Sector Architectural Firms - BD+C 2019 26th Top 125 Retail Architectural Firms - BD+C 2019 117th Top 150 Healthcare Architectural Firms - BD+C 2019 128th Top 180 Reconstruction Work Architecture Firms – BD+C 2019 165th Top 200 Office Sector Architectural Firms - BD+C 2019 20th New Jersey’s Top Architectural Firms - NJBIZ 2019
If nothing else, Gabe has certainly become an expert at doing things for the first time!
GABE’ S
S K E TC H
BO O K
MMA LOCATIONS FOUNDED 1996
HEADQUARTERS
NEPTUNE, NEW JERSEY 3297 Route 66 - Neptune, NJ 07753 732.918.2300
DC OFFICE
WASHINGTON D.C. 1054 31st St. NW - Suite 138 Washington DC 20007 202.450.5895
SOUTH CAROLINA OFFICE
GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA 1002 East Washington St. Greenville, SC 29601 864.467.9871
SATELLITE OFFICE
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 2757 West Hannon Hill Dr. Tallahassee, FL 32309
SATELLITE OFFICE
TAMPA, FLORIDA 8524 Tidal Bay Ln. Tampa, FL 33635
MASSA
NEPTUNE, NJ 3297 Route 66 Neptune, NJ 07753 732.918.2300
M U LT I M E D I A
WASHINGTON D.C. 1054 31st St. NW Suite 138 Washington DC 20007 202.450.5895
A RC H I T E C T URE
GREENVILLE, SC 1002 East Washington St. Greenville, SC 29601 864.467.9871
TAMPA, FL 8524 Tidal Bay Ln. Tampa, FL 33635
TALLAHASSEE, FL 2757 West Hannon Hill Dr. Tallahassee, FL 32309