This $12-million building addition is the nation’s first project to receive WELL Gold certification for new and existing buildings, transforming an existing manufacturing plant into research space for 200 people. To achieve WELL certification, the project team says it used an interior planting design to achieve occupant health and comfort. This design approach addressed air quality and natural daylight while creating comfortable physical spaces and opportunities for employees to connect with nature. In addition, the project was wrapped into the efforts to target LEED Silver certification for the campus at large.

One engineering challenge involved rerouting an electrical duct bank controlled by the local utility company. The work required intensive coordination with the utility for more than 12 months, collaboration that helped accommodate other utilities to make way for the project’s new electrical duct pathway.

Other engineering tasks included designing new water and sewer and drainage connections and making upgrades to site circulation to allow for an employee drop-off area and an outdoor seating plaza for employees. The team successfully dealt with “a vocal” nearby resident by “preparing and installing a landscape screening program that would limit the resident’s view of the expanded building.”

The project included an enclosed amphitheater that sits below open seating that also provides interactive workspace.