
We all know great interior design impacts our lives in ways we don’t fully understand and in ways we find hard to prove objectively. Yet a central issue for those of you whose livelihoods depend upon convincing people that “design pays” is that proving it statistically or in some other measurable way requires dedicated research, preferably research that establishes a baseline before the new project and then follow up research after it’s been in use for some time.
The majority of clients don’t want to pay for such research. They’re willing to simply say something like, “We love our new offices.” And leave it at that.
In the fall of 2018 ASID unveiled an awards program to promulgate the positive effects of great design on the users of completed projects and to celebrate examples of well-designed and well-researched projects. Based on their design solutions, occupant experiences, and post-occupancy research, notable projects and teams were selected for honors by a jury.
Speaking of the genesis of the program, Gary Wheeler, CEO of ASID said. “The Outcome of Design Awards first launched in 2018. The ASID team, as well as partners from the now MillerKnoll team, wanted to develop a program that combined design excellence along with design thinking and evidence-based work. Yes, a project has wonderful photography, incredible products and a great story, but how do all of those pieces come together to impact its occupants? Whether it was physical or mental wellbeing, productivity, or one of many other quantifiable factors, the Outcome of Design Awards were devised to go beyond aesthetics and delve into the rich thought and strategies that make a project successful—projects that in fact achieve measurable outcomes. We hope that our project winners, honorees, and optimizers over the years demonstrate how design and the human experience are intertwined.”
Past winners include:
– in 2019: Unity Healthcare Brentwood; project team: Gensler (Design and Research), Unity Healthcare, Brentwood, Louise Russell (Researcher and Designer), Sunbrella, Wray Ward Communications, Artisan, Rand Construction
– in 2019: University of Utah, Lassonde Studios; project team: CannonDesign (Architecture), EDA Architects (Architecture and Design), University of Utah (Research)
– in 2019: StudioIDS; project team: Perkins&Will (Design and Research), Dunham Associates (MEP Engineer), Gardner Builders (General Contractor)
– in 2020: Sensory Wellbeing Hub; project team: HKS (Design and Research)
– in 2020: M Moser Associates Living Lab; project team: M Moser Associates
Due to the pandemic, the program paused during 2020, so there weren’t any awards in 2021. However, during that time, ASID focused on expanding the Outcome of Design program into resources for interior designers, including a project toolkit, manifesto, and educational/CEU programming.
The 2022 recipients of the ‘Outcome of Design Awards’ will present their work and be celebrated at ASID, GATHER, the national Conference by ASID, in Miami this Thursday, September 22nd.
In order to be designated a Winner, projects must show that People, Place and Planet are a part of the design solution and measure at least one of these criteria. For 2022, ASID has created a new designation, Optimizers, these projects are “best of” award winners that have gone above and beyond the base criteria to measure more than one of the People, Place and Planet categories.
The Little Charlotte Office, designed by Little Diversified Architectural Consulting has been named the 2022 Outcome of Design Winner.
The Sheltering Arms Institute, designed by HDR, and the University of California, San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood, designed by HKS are the 2022 Outcome of Design Optimizers.
We were too impressed with the three projects chosen this year to pare their presentation to one officeinsight article, so we will be presenting all three in a 3-part series over the following weeks. We begin with the University of California, San Diego’s North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood, designed by HKS.
North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood

This is an amazing project from several points of view.
– Scope: six new buildings on a 10-acre site providing 2,048 student residence beds, 200,000 sf of academic buildings, 20,000 sf of administrative spaces, a 650-seat auditorium, 64,000 sf of “community amenities,” such as dining, retail, coffee shop, craft center and the auditorium designed to encourage engagement with the larger La Jolla community as well as the student community, and a 1,200 vehicle underground parking facility.
– Approach: As stated in the Executive Summary of the study report, “A rare component of this project was an extremely Detailed Project Program (DPP) that was highly qualitative in nature and relied on extensive stakeholder engagement with students. The idea of creating a “neighborhood” and “connection” to college, university and community were all embedded in the DPP.
“The intent was to study students in their prior residential environments, and then a year later in their new environments, to understand if there were any key changes in their perceptions and behaviors. To ensure an authentic and deep understanding, students from the university were engaged as research fellows/scholars for the project.”

– Vision: The purpose of building the study into the DPP was to set the UC San Diego campus as a Live-Learn Lab that could use the capital project as a vehicle for research and education on campus. Additionally, it aimed to give opportunities to students on the UC San Diego campus to act as research scholars and fellows, to promote a larger sense of ownership and authorship over the project by the end users it was designed for.
– Team: a coalition was formed between the non-profit Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE), UC San Diego faculty, HKS and the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture to undertake a longitudinal study on how the design of the built environment influences student health, well-being, social connection, and environmental health. The co-leaders of the team were Upali Nanda, PhD of HSK and CADRE and Lakshmi Chilukuri, PhD, Provost of the Sixth College at UC San Diego. They were joined by architectural and design leaders on the project from HKS, researchers from HKS, the facilities director and the director of residence life from the university and two research scholars from the university – one living in the new campus and one doing research for her PhD.
– Study: The study began with online surveys of 300 students during the summers of 2020 and 2021. Working around COVID related lockdowns that reduced planned occupancy of the new facilities to 50% of capacity for the 2020 school year, the team shifted from planned in-person focus groups to 14 to 20 video conversations with 2-4 students at a time during 2020 and 2021. Follow-on surveys were implemented one year later.

I’ll leave it to the “wonderful photography” alluded to in Mr. Wheeler’s remarks to speak to the architecture of the completed project. The included- charts from the report convey key findings from the data. The 36-page full report can be accessed here, and I highly recommend it, because it covers so much more of this interesting project than we can cover.
This is truly a model of the sort of scientific research that can help us better understand the impact of design on lives.
