The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) had the goal of creating the “Workplace of the Future” for their new headquarters space. The project has achieved LEED-CI Platinum Certification and WELL Building Standard Platinum Certification—the first tenant space to accomplish this feat. Located in downtown Washington, DC the project is intended to be a living laboratory where collaboration, flexibility, sustainability and occupant wellbeing are primary design drivers. With the aid of specialized wearable devices, a range of employee experiences were documented pre and post occupancy to provide research information to the design community. Employees have no assigned seats, but rather select from a variety of workplace environments based on what best supports their specific tasks. Spaces range from highly collaborative teaming environments to more private heads-down focused environments.

The new office includes a circadian lighting system, designed to mimic the daily color temperature cycle of natural daylight and an automated system raises and lowers the window shades in response to the sun, glare, and current weather conditions. Since ASID pursued Platinum certification for both LEED and WELL, each decision had a potential trickle-down effect for the parallel rating system and required trade-offs. One such tradeoff came with the installation of carbon filtration, used to treat the air and ensure the best possible air quality. The HVAC system requires more energy to push the air through the carbon filters, which impacted some of the LEED credits the team pursued. The team ultimately looked at both rating systems as a whole to ensure all sustainability goals were met.