Lida Lewis
PASSIONATE DESIGNER
EDUCATOR | THOUGHT LEADER
Page DC Expansion
When I joined Page, it was 2020. That's right. Specifically, March 2020.
While it was an...interesting time in general to be starting at a firm, the office had recently signed an LOI for a 10,000 SF expansion of their existing 25,000 lease. Already a full floor tenant on the 7th floor, the space had been acquired in a series of additive measures, and with a team both tasked with retaining much of the existing construction and largely uneducated in modern workplace design and trends
When I stepped in, the space plan, like the original premises, was not code compliant and the lease calculations were not in alignment with BOMA standards. The area of the space, and the programmed number of workstations to be accommodated had already been decided. Apprehension about cross-contagion made discussions of alternative based working strategies--including unassigned desking--unpalatable to management. However, other aspects of the design had not yet been put in place and I worked quickly to rework the plan, assist in lease negotiations, and push the team toward the aspirational goal of WELL Certification.
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Construction was a wild ride. Between a raging pandemic, racial protests and regular periods of civil unrest, an insurrection at the capital, and supply chain disruptions, nothing was typical or usual. I stayed loose and flexible, working with the contractor and communicating regularly with our CEO to adjust to all the disruptions and changes thrown our way. I stayed in regular communication with occupants, because though we were at skeleton level crew with COVID shut downs, there was a regular population coming into the office and navigating this rapidly changing and fluid construction site.
Additionally, I was the only team member (and I mean only--all other designers, engineers, contractors, and vendors included) who was a WELL AP, and the only one at all familiar with implementation of the WELL Building Standard. Mentoring and teaching was therefore an integral part of every move I made, and every conversation I had. I took advantage of every resource available to me to calculate and design to every feature we had agreed to pursue. For example: Armstrong's acoustic department helped greatly with calculations on reverberation time and pricing; and our lighting vendor dove deep with myself and the engineers to reduce glare, calculate footcandles, and program for circadian photoentrainment.
In the end, the space is pending WELL Platinum certification. The only elements currently standing in the way of our performance verification and certification are related to HR policies and Operations procedures. I find this is often a sticking point for clients, as it becomes clear that, unlike LEED and many other certifications, there are items outside of the design team's full control and requiring cooperation between multiple internal departments and hierarchies. In Page's case, the desire to have these elements implemented firm-wide rather than simply locally is slowing down the process, as well as high staff turnover in our local HR and Operations staff. I continue to assist wherever I can, writing policies, researching and creating procedures for operations, developing new teams and language than can help us reach the certification goal.
While I don't have final space photography, below are images of the final space without a photo-ready cleanup, lighting, or professional camera--just me and my trusty Samsung phone!
