Perkins&Will delivers a WELL Certified office to Avison Young, Dallas

Having heard that the commercial real estate firm, Avison Young had moved into only the second WELL Certified office in Dallas, Texas, I recently interviewed my good friend Brigitte Preston, principal and design director at the Dallas office of Perkins&Will, whose team designed the space.

Avison Young takes a forthright position on the pressing global issues of our time, advocating for the positive impact it and its clients can have.

In its 2019 Global Citizenship Report, Avison Young CEO, Mark Rose wrote, “Events of 2019 and 2020 have been a wake-up call to the urgency of the environmental and social challenges facing our world, and to the need for collective action by governments, businesses and citizens to effect change.

“In 2019, the growing number of extreme weather events brought increased attention to the climate change movement already underway, and spurred on, in part, by Greta Thunberg. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests against racial injustices laid bare vulnerabilities and inequalities in even the most developed countries.

“At Avison Young, we believe in the positive impact commercial real estate can make in people’s lives. Our sector can help create healthy, productive workplaces for employees, [emphasis added] resilient cities that are centres of prosperity and inclusion for their citizens, and built spaces and places that deliver a net benefit to the economy, the environment and the community.”

To its credit, Avison Young walks the walk when it comes to embracing sustainability and providing a healthy, productive workplace for its employees. Ms. Preston said, “When we first saw the space it was already a LEED Gold Certified building and we think of WELL as being for people what LEED is for buildings.

“With its excellent floor to deck height and floor to ceiling windows, the space seemed to us to offer an ideal opportunity to go for a WELL Certification, and since there had not been one in Dallas at the time, we saw it as an opportunity for our client to demonstrate one of its key differentiators versus its competition.”

Her pitch to Avison Young went something like, “To differentiate yourself from your competition and show that you’re forward thinking, what if you get the WELL Certification and build your space as an example of what’s important to you as a company.” They agreed.

As one might expect of a commercial real estate advisory company, Avison Young had chosen the location for a set of very specific reasons:

>The layout, size, location, and amenities of the building matched the needs of Avison Young.

>The building was certified LEED Gold under the v2009 BC+C Core & Shell rating system.

>The downtown Dallas location overlooks the dynamic Klyde Warren Park. Providing the type of energizing atmosphere AY was looking for.

>Many vibrant restaurants and coffee shops are located near the building for employees to enjoy.

>The building provides quality views and desirable sight-lines and connections to the public park.

>The building has a convenient workout facility that will be available for use by anyone in the office at no cost.

>The natural light in the space provided a welcome change from its previous office building.

>There is enough space in the building for the office to grow over time.

Avison Young had three goals for the new office: to grow their Dallas team and expand their service lines; create a culture of teamwork and community; and to differentiate the company from other commercial real estate firms in the area. Achieving these goals meant departing from the traditional office layout and conceptualizing a more connected environment that would foster conversation and collaboration. To meet these expectations, Perkins&Will designed different setting types that employees can choose from depending on their changing needs.

The design team’s plan places great emphasis on a workplace that focuses on the human experience where the health and happiness of employees is a priority. The WELL Certification process provided a welcome and useful guide to that effort.

Achieving WELL Silver Certification requires meeting 36 “preconditions” or prerequisites in 7 “concepts.” The concepts are: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort, and Mind. For levels above Silver there are a total of 105 “optimizations” in these seven base concepts – there are also more concepts for organizations with different needs or preferences.

The Light Concept of the WELL standard covers four main features: Visual Lighting Design, Circadian Lighting Design, Electric Light Glare Control, and Solar Glare Control. And providing all workers with access to natural daylight was a key requirement of the Avison Young team, despite the fact that it had traditionally reserved window locations for private offices. In the Perkins& Will design, natural daylight from the floor-to-ceiling windows bathes the new height adjustable workstations.

The design team also included a corridor along the window wall from the reception area to a balcony with views of Klyde Warren Park, one of Dallas’ most popular center city parks. For those wanting to step outside during the workday, there is a balcony furnished with lounge seating, dining tables and high seating and a niche with planters.

 “Working with the Perkins&Will team was a great collaboration. They listened to our goal of putting the health and wellness of the Avison Young Dallas team front and center. The design team developed a fresh space that provided all the elements needed to deliver an environment that promotes positive experiences every day,” said Jim Louis, project manager and principal at Avison Young.

“From an operations standpoint, the new office functions extremely well with respect to how our employees utilize the many features throughout the space. Plus, the wellness aspect of the certification allowed us to transition to healthy snacks, which is a big benefit to everyone,” said  Joanne Runge, operations manager, Avison Young.

Avison Young’s “snack culture” had long been defined by candy jars that employees used  to boost their sugar levels in the afternoon. With the new WELL Certified office they have resolved to get rid of the candy jars and provide nutritious snacks and beverages for employees that will keep their energy levels naturally high without the sugar crash of the candy jar.

Ms. Preston observed, “We designed this project pre-COVID, but with pandemic interruptions it took more than a year to get the WELL Certificate. Now it turns out that the elements we embraced to achieve WELL Certification are nicely tuned for a post-COVID return to the office.”