Congratulations to our client Vendure Retirement Communities on achieving WELL™ Precertification for the Waterview development located in Nelson, BC. The Waterview development, located in this quaint little Canadian city, is demonstrating global leadership in building health.⁠
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By implementing evidence-based strategies that prioritize the health and well-being of our grandparents, parents, and loved ones, as well as those who work in this space to care for them, Vendure is creating environments that are hospitality oriented, reduce employee stress and burnout, foster employee engagement and retention, and ensure the well-being of residents and families.

Huge Congratulations to our client @arivakelowna for continuing to move forward with enhanced Health and Wellness development by achieving yet another Pre-Certification for the Ariva Project from the International Well Building Institute.

The WELL™ Community Standard is designed to impact individuals not just within the walls of their home or workplace, but throughout the public spaces where they spend their days. A WELL™ COMMUNITY is designed to support health and well-being across all aspects and areas of community life. The vision for a WELL™ community is inclusive, integrated, and resilient, with a strong community identity fostering high levels of social interaction and engagement. Resources in a WELL™ community—natural, human and technological—are used effectively, equally, and responsibly to meet the community’s current and future needs and priorities.

This WELL™ Community Standard Pre-Certification means that the Ariva Community is one of the only of its kind in Canada and continues to be an early adopter of best practices in design and construction with evidence-based medical and scientific research—harnessing buildings and communities as vehicles to support human health and well-being.

Nestled in the heart of Downtown Vancouver, the Vancouver Convention Centre (VCC) has been helping its clients plan and deliver exciting events for more than 35 years. With more than 100,000 square meters of convention space, the venue is comprised of a restored marine habitat embedded into the building’s foundation, and a flourishing six-acre living roof irrigated by an onsite blackwater treatment plant, making the VCC one of Vancouver’s most iconic landmarks.

The Vancouver Convention Centre was the first convention centre in the world to achieve double LEED™ Platinum – the first for Building and Construction (2009; for the lifetime of the building) and the second for Building Operations and Maintenance (2017; renewal in 2022) of the West building. Sustainability was a key priority in the construction of the VCC and continues to be integral in how it operates.

Washington D.C., USA, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) headquarters office was the first project to be certified Platinum by both LEED™ and WELL™ v1. Here, the WELL™ Building Standard is demonstrated with an exceptional dedication to both the environment and the health and safety of building occupants, ASID™ balanced energy efficiency and waste reduction with interior environmental conditions and wellness concerns.

The Watershed Building (previously called the Titan Living Building Pilot Project) is a developer led Core and Shell/TI commercial building located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The location of the site near the popular Burke Gilman Trail, as well as its proximity to services and transit in the Fremont neighborhood made it an ideal candidate for the Place Petal of the Living Building Challenge. The project also was in a unique location under the Aurora Bridge, and on a slope that leads to Lake Union and the Ship Canal, making it an ideal candidate for the City of Seattle Living Building Pilot Program, based on the stormwater and water reduction requirements within that program.

In an impressive feat, Commercial Real Estate Services certified all three of its Toronto offices at the same time – following on the heels of its Vancouver office which was certified in 2017. CBRE’s offices include many design features focused on employee wellness: Natural sunlight is incorporated into the design of the building, and lighting levels are automatically dimmed based on natural light levels, Sit-stand workstations for all employees, Acoustic enhancements, Water filtration, Encouraging physical activity and foot traffic through the buildings.

The Phenix is Zero Carbon Building-certified architecture; planning and design firm Lemay has achieved Zero Carbon Building – Performance (ZCB-Performance) certification for its transformation of an abandoned warehouse into a low-carbon, net zero energy workspace for 350 employees. The project features the deep retrofit of a three-story, 9,264 m² structure that was originally built in 1950 and used for industrial purposes. Located in the heart of Montreal’s Sud-Ouest borough, the building initially served as a distribution centre for department store catalogues and then as a document storage facility. It had been vacant for at least a decade before it was converted into office space for Lemay’s growing transdisciplinary team. The Phenix presented an opportunity for Lemay to design a unique work environment that could serve as an experimental laboratory for testing out new sustainable concepts and approaches.

The Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) is an overachiever in the realm of health and sustainable building. As well as earning the first WELL™ Pilot Platinum certification in 2014, CSL was the first and only building to receive five of the highest green building certifications. CSL currently holds the following ratings: WELL™ Platinum (Pilot), LEED™ Platinum, Living Building Challenge (LBC)™, SITES™ Platinum, and BREEAM™ Outstanding In-Use.

The Mohawk + Daltile Showroom is in an existing building utilizing the renovation typology. No changes to the exterior envelope, enclosure, doors, or fixed windows were a part of the scope of work. The team placed conference work areas near the operable storefront doors that can be
opened if desired. The workstations and single office area are near daylight (10% of each wall includes glazing), but the windows in the existing building are fixed. Employees are encouraged to move around to various work locations to change their lights or to seek operable doors. Employees are often changing their location and attitude throughout the day as they serve customers or move about the space to prepare display areas. There are no partitions in the open office work area.

Milliken Flooring’s San Francisco was one of the first projects in North America to achieve Platinum certification in WELL™ v2. The space, which is used as a living lab and a hub for the local design community, implemented an array of different strategies including natural sunlight, MERV 13 and carbon filters, weekly yoga classes, as well as air quality monitoring from Kaiterra™.

Co-owned by the University of Toronto and the City of Toronto in a unique partnership, the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre is a hub of activity and collaboration for students, community members, and high performance athletes. As a legacy venue for the 2015 Pan Am & Parapan American Games, the facility will host swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, fencing, modern pentathalon, sitting volleyball and in-line roller speed skating events. This state-of-the-art building is the largest new-build sports facility for the Games, and is considered one of the largest investments in Canadian amateur sport history. At 393,628 square-feet, it includes seating for 8,000 spectators, two internationally sanctioned 10-lane 50-metre pools, a 5-metre deep diving tank, a four-court gymnasium, an indoor walking/running track, a climbing wall, conditioning rooms, a high performance testing centre, studio spaces, and a state-of-the-art fitness centre.

Our next entry is an unusual one. After all, it’s not often that the organization is certified by its own standard. The International WELL™ Building Institute, the organization behind the WELL™ Standard, is headquartered in New York, New York. Their global office received the WELL™ Certification in 2019, after relocating to an aging building along Madison Square Park.