ASID headquarters is first space in the world to earn both LEED and WELL Platinum Certification

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) headquarters office is the first space in the world to achieve Platinum Level Certification for both the WELL Building Standard and LEED.

The 8,500 sf office space, designed by Perkins+Will, features human-centric design elements including:

Biophilic design strategies, which introduce natural elements into a space to help reduce stress and increase air quality
Sound masking systems
Rigorous water quality standards
A circadian lighting system developed to expand worker productivity by helping to regulate the body's physiological processes

A kitchen space located within the ASID Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Courtesy of ASID.

Healthy policies and procedures that emphasize employee health and productivity include providing fresh fruit and vegetables, sit/stand desks, and a wellness room to provide mental breaks. The office is serving as a living laboratory for the design community.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.