flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

AEC firms practice what they preach

Sustainability

AEC firms practice what they preach

The advice about wellness firms dispense to clients in many cases has already been road tested to make their own workplaces healthier.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | February 11, 2019
Woman walking down a staircase

The “monumental” connecting staircase within Little Diversified Architectural Consultants’ offices in Charlotte, N.C., highlights the firm’s commitment to WELL’s wellness standards that encourage occupant activity. Photo: Tim Buchanan Photography, Courtesy Little

AEC firms that have been pushing wellness for years say they finally have a receptive ear with developers and owners. “Developers sell this; they see it as an exciting new trend,” says Colin Rohlfing, AIA, LEED AP, Vice President and Director of Sustainability with HDR.

The advice about wellness these firms dispense to clients in many cases has already been road tested to make their own workplaces healthier.

New Orleans-based Eskew+Dumez+Ripple positions wellness to clients as “asset opportunities,” such as yoga rooms and classes, with the goal of keeping employees active, says Ian O’Cain, AIA, Associate and Project Architect. One of his firm’s recent projects is a new 30,200-sf, two-story office building in New Orleans that serves as the corporate headquarters for general contractor Palmisano Group. The $9 million building includes an in-house gym and yoga studio, green space, an active stairwell, and a racetrack layout that creates a circulation path for employees. The narrow floorplate (55 feet wide) lets in lots of light.

One of DPR Construction’s  recent projects is a new office space in Charlotte, N.C., for Little Diversified Architectural Consultants. Chris Gorthy, a Project Executive with DPR, says that before embarking on this project, Little’s management toured several WELL-certified buildings, including DPR’s office in Reston, Va.

Little’s Charlotte office takes up 60,000 sf over 2½ floors of an existing building. Wellness certification accounted for about $8 per sf of its $150 per sf cost (including furniture), according to Little CEO Phil Kuttner, AIA, LEED AP, WELL AP. Its wellness features include a monumental staircase, access to drinkable water throughout, and ample natural lighting. Gorthy says the biggest challenge was upgrading the building’s air quality, which required educating the project’s subcontractors, setting up a temporary containment system, and figuring out how the air system could be cleaned.

Kuttner says the company assigned a team within its company to monitor the office’s air and water quality, conduct employee satisfaction and productivity surveys, and issue reports.

Last November, Clark Construction became the first GC in the U.S. to be a Fitwel Champion. As part of that agreement, Clark has identified seven of its offices—in Baltimore and Bethesda, Md.; Chicago; Irvine, San Diego, and San Francisco, Calif.; and Seattle—to achieve Fitwel certification.

“This is a way for our company to break through to our employees about its concern for their healthier living,” says Fernando Arias, Clark’s Director of Sustainability. He observes, too, that many of his firm’s clients “are in the same boat” and are looking for ways to provide healthier work environments to their employees.

Take, for example, a mixed-used project in Maryland that Carr Properties is developing known as The Wilson & The Elm, a 930,000-sf building with 360,000 sf of office space and 460 for-rent apartments. (The demolished building this replaces had been known as The Apex.) Arias says the genesis of this project was a meeting he had in early 2018 with the developer’s CEO Oliver Carr, which led to a presentation about wellness that Arias’ team made to Carr executives last April.

Carr Properties now has four projects registered with Fitwel, and The Wilson & The Elm is likely to be the second certified, following another Clark-built project: Midtown Center in Washington, D.C.

What prompted Carr Properties to move toward wellness, says its Senior Director of Development Jason Bockenek, was “a combination of our outlook as long-term owners of real estate, and increased demand driven by sophisticated tenants, catering to a younger workforce.”

Related Stories

| Sep 7, 2012

The keys to success in the K-12 school market

When educators and school administrators describe their vision for new K-12 school buildings as ‘21st-century learning spaces,’ they’re not exaggerating. Many new schools are truly different in concept from their counterparts of only a few years ago.

| Aug 2, 2012

BD+C University: PVC Single-Plies as Sustainable Roofing Systems

You can earn 1.0 AIA credit + HSW + SD by taking this course.

| Jul 2, 2012

Plumosa School of the Arts earns LEED Gold

Education project dedicated to teaching sustainability in the classroom.

| Jun 22, 2012

USGBC Joins Six Major Organizations at Rio+20 to Launch the Global Initiative on Urban Resilience

Global initiative is designed to spur building and infrastructure development, create new investment opportunities, and foster community action around the world

| Jun 19, 2012

Armstrong Issues Environmental Product Declarations On Nine Popular Ceiling and Steel Suspension Systems

Transparent new documentation allows end users to make more informed decisions when selecting ceilings for projects

| Jun 18, 2012

Tremco Commercial Sealants & Waterproofing Unveils Sustainable Building Solutions Test Facility

State-of-the-art facility provides a controlled testing environment of air and moisture infiltration/exfiltration in air barrier systems and building enclosures

| Jun 15, 2012

InPro’s bio-content becomes Cradle-to-Cradle CertifiedCM Silver

Two main components of G2 Blend formula now C2C Certified Silver.

| Jun 13, 2012

Free webinar on Designing and Building Green Schools scheduled for June 20

USGBC Center for Green Schools and other experts to present practical tips.

| Jun 13, 2012

Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute to hold energy asset conference for property owners, senior real estate managers

Top-level real estate professionals have been ignored as the industry has pushed to get sustainability measures in place.

| Jun 8, 2012

Living Building Challenge wins the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

The Living Building Challenge was chosen from a pool of 122 of entries from around the world.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Green

Global green building alliance releases guide for $35 trillion investment to achieve net zero, meet global energy transition goals

The international alliance of UK-based Building Research Establishment (BRE), the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Alliance HQE-GBC France developed the guide, Financing Transformation: A Guide to Green Building for Green Bonds and Green Loans, to strengthen global cooperation between the finance and real estate sectors.



Products and Materials

Top products from AIA 2024

This month, Building Design+Construction editors are bringing you the top products displayed at the 2024 AIA Conference on Architecture & Design. Nearly 550 building product manufacturers showcased their products—here are 17 that caught our eye.


halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021