A Greenville architecture, planning and interior design firm with six offices throughout the Southeast is striving to make its buildings healthier for employees.
McMillan Pazdan Smith is pursuing WELL health-safety ratings for its offices in Greenville, Asheville, Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte and Spartanburg. The firm, which was recognized by Engineering News-Record as the “Southeast Design Firm of the Year” in 2019, would be among the first in the Upstate to achieve the coveted rating.
The WELL Health-Safety Rating was created in response to COVID-19 as a way for existing buildings to incorporate changes and improvements that focus on the health, safety and well-being of occupants. The rating is a roadmap for improving the quality of air, water and light, which helps facilitate a slew of physical and mental health benefits.
“The WELL Health-Safety Rating is one way that McMillan Pazdan Smith shows us that the well-being of each team member is important,” said Kennedy Tran, an architect in the Greenville studio who is helping lead the initiative for the company and with several of its clients.
WELL works at any scale, from a single interior space to an entire organization. To receive WELL certification, organizations must meet performance standards for design interventions, operational protocols and company-wide practices that are based on numerous strategies.
These include:
- Assessing air and water quality
- Keeping spaces clean and sanitized
- Providing essential health benefits and services
- Helping occupants prepare for an emergency
“The WELL Health-Safety Rating has given us a framework to create the safest and healthiest working environments for our team across all six offices,” Chief Executive Officer Chad Cousins said. “Doing so reflects our commitment to being a resilient and caring firm and models what’s possible to others.”
WELL’s scientific and medical research on environmental, behavioral and demographic risk factors that affect health has led to innovative developments in building design, construction and management.
“Like many of our clients, we recognize the importance of taking a holistic approach that’s focused on the health and wellness of our people,” principal architect K.J. Jacobs concluded.
About WELL
The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. IWBI delivers the cutting-edge WELL Building Standard™, the leading global rating system and the first to be focused exclusively on the ways that buildings, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness.
At the global level, the WELL Health-Safety Rating, which was launched last July as a rating consisting of a subset of features from the WELL Building Standard (launched in 2014), has been adopted by over 20,000 locations totaling 1.7 billion square feet of real estate in 88 countries.
– Source: IWBI
