Archinect - News

Goettsch Partners' tiered office tower 'is the healthiest in Chicago'

2022-12-02T09:14:00-05:00

Goettsch Partners (GP) has completed an office tower that it claims is the healthiest in Chicago. Called 320 South Canal, the 51-story structure is the latest in a series by the same team that focuses on tenant health and wellness.

Image © Nick Ulivieri Photography

The 1,740,000-square-foot tower features a conference center, fitness center, restaurant, to-go market, bank, a cocktail lounge in an adjacent structure, as well as parking for cars and bicycles. It also includes a privately owned public park called The Green. The development team of Riverside Investment & Development, Convexity Properties, and Clark Construction also delivered Chicago’s Bank of America Tower in 2020 and the 150 North Riverside office building in 2017. All three projects are certified or precertified LEED Gold, WELL Platinum and WiredScore Platinum.

Image © Nick Ulivieri Photography

320 South Canal hosts a range of design strategies that aim to improve occupant wellbeing, including advanced air monitoring ...

International WELL Building Institute CEO Rachel Hodgdon on the rise of building health ratings

2022-08-29T14:16:00-04:00

The adoption of WELL Certification during the past eight years has been nothing short of incredible—the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has just crossed the 4 billion mark for square footage enrolled to pursue WELL Certification, which means more than 36,000 spaces in more than 120 countries, serving more than 17 million people every day.

Rachel Hodgdon, President & CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and former U.S. Green Building Council Knowledge SVP and Center for Green Schools Director, shared with Multi-Housing News that the institute is currently in development of a single-family residential certification and will soon debut its new WELL Equity Rating, which Hodgdon says is “designed to empower organizations to create places where everyone can feel welcome, seen, and heard.”

Previously on Archinect: New WELL Performance Rating aims to recognize smart, healthy buildings

She also commented on the rise in green building certifications across all building types that has been recorded since the pandemic, providing statistics that support the organizational tide change that the updated rating systems are meant to engender.

“Not only has the WELL Health-Safety Rating been hugely popular, with 2.8 billion square feet enrolled since its launch just two years ago, but we are also finding that most of...

New WELL Performance Rating aims to recognize smart, healthy buildings

2022-04-15T15:29:00-04:00

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has announced the launch of the WELL Performance Rating, a new rating that recognizes building owners and operators for achieving excellence in healthy building performance that enhances the well-being of their inhabitants.

The rating was developed in collaboration with industry leaders in smart building technologies and with input from IWBI Performance Advisory, WELL Performance Testing Organizations (PTOs), and WELL Enterprise Providers (EPs). It provides a roadmap for organizations to demonstrate excellence in occupant experience and building performance across key indoor environmental quality indicators related to air quality, water quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, and lighting.

With this rating, organizations can now gather intelligence to develop better business performance through the use of sensor networks, onsite tests, and surveys that assess employee perceptions of their health, well-being, and performance while in th...

'Healthy buildings' rise amid COVID-19, suggesting a healthier future

2020-12-16T17:40:00-05:00

...architects have been working with the International WELL Building Institute, an organization that’s developing standards for healthy buildings and is now run by Hodgdon. Since the pandemic, the Institute has been registering more than a million square feet of real estate a day in its certification program, putting buildings on the path to wellness.

A new article by WIRED's Sonner Kehrt explores the long term effects of 'healthy' design. "Over the past several months, the Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a surge of interest in the role that indoor environments—where we spend 90 percent of our time, even in a normal year—play in our health," writes Kerht. "Suddenly, developers and CEOs are realizing that incorporating health concerns in a building’s design isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity," she continues.

The piece goes into the long-term benefits of the new interest in safer buildings, the importance of interior environments on mental health, and some remarks from a handful of architects working towards these goals.