Arup announced that it has achieved WELL Certified Gold in its new Boston office. Arup is the first to receive WELL Certification in New England at any level and the 14th globally to achieve WELL Certified Gold. Design team members include Dyer Brown Architects for architecture and interior design and Corderman & Company, Inc. as general contractor. In addition to their role as owner, Arup provided lighting design, WELL consulting, commissioning, acoustics, and structural engineering.
"Arup's WELL Certified Gold award demonstrates outstanding healthy building leadership," said Rick Fedrizzi, chairman and CEO of IWBI. "IWBI's mission is to bring human health and wellness to the forefront of building practices globally, and it is leaders in the building industry like Arup that are helping to advance this movement."
The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based scientific research. It identifies 105 performance metrics, design strategies, and procedures that can be implemented by owners, operators, and the design team to improve indoor environmental quality. Arup's Boston office earned the distinction based on seven categories of building performance: air, water, light, nourishment, fitness, comfort, and mind. To be awarded WELL Certification by IWBI, Arup underwent rigorous testing and a final evaluation carried out by Green Business Certification Inc. to ensure it met all WELL Certified Gold performance requirements.
WELL design features include:
- Material selection that promotes good indoor-air quality through the use of products proven not to emit harmful contaminants, and that disclose health and environmental impacts
- Circadian lighting systems designed by Arup with dynamic controls that automatically adjust color and brightness based on the position of the sun to replicate daylight
- Active design through space planning and sit/stand desks to encourage more movement and less sedentariness during the day
- End-of-pipe water filtration that improves the taste and quality of tap water, promoting proper hydration
- Ventilation that optimizes air quality through filtration and ventilation rates that respond to occupancy levels
The Arup Boston office serves as a living laboratory to test its own wellbeing approaches to help quantify the impact of health and wellbeing strategies. The assessment includes a WELL-focused pre and post occupancy survey developed with in house environmental psychologists, as well as a custom-designed indoor environmental quality sensor kit built by Arup programmers to stream real-time data.
"Arup is committed to creating both a sustainable and healthy office environment. WELL emphasizes health and wellbeing initiatives to achieve a workplace optimized for people," said Tim McCaul, Principal and Boston Group Leader. "We believe that working in a healthy building relates to employee performance, recruitment and retention, reduced absenteeism, embodiment of brand, and company culture."
Arup has had an office in the Boston area for over 17 years. In that time, Boston staff have worked with a broad range of clients including many of the best regarded firms, institutions, and agencies in the region and across the globe. Current and recent projects include Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex, MBTA Green Line Extension, Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building at Dudley Square, MIT Site 4 Graduate Student Tower, Boston Properties Back Bay Station mixed use development, and Partners Healthcare Resiliency Masterplan.
