The Well Living Lab, a DelosTM and Mayo Clinic collaboration, recently announced that HOK is the first design, architecture and engineering firm to join the growing Well Living Lab Alliance.
The Well Living Lab studies the connection between health and the indoor environment to transform human health and well-being in places where we live, work, learn, and play. Through the Alliance community, the Well Living Lab collaborates with companies, academic researchers, non-profit organizations and industry experts who want to play a leadership role in understanding and creating indoor environments that enhance human health and wellness.
“HOK is committed to incorporating health and well-being performance and design standards into our projects,” said Mara Baum, AIA, EDAC, WELL, LEED Fellow, HOK’s sustainable design leader for health + wellness. “Joining the Well Living Lab Alliance will help to put HOK at the forefront of industry research, allowing us to better serve our clients by implementing research findings that advance the way we design spaces with health and wellness principles in mind.”
This follows the September 2016 announcement that HOK has partnered with Delos to accelerate the integration of health and wellness into the built environment. HOK recently joined Mortenson, RSP Architects and a team of prominent local consultants to design the first phase of Destination Medical Center’s Discovery Square, an urban life science hub in Rochester, Minnesota. Both the phase one project led by Mortenson, as well as the existing Well Living Lab, will be vital parts of the long-term vision for Discovery Square.
“Our fundamental aspiration is to enhance people’s lives through design,” said Bill Hellmuth, AIA, LEED AP, president and CEO of HOK. “Joining the growing Well Living Lab Alliance, combined with our work on projects like Discovery Square that advance life science research, supports our commitment to using design to improve the health and well-being of communities. We look forward to being involved at the ground level with important research on how the built environment impacts human health. Our access to this research through the Well Living Lab will influence our design approach and processes.”
“Since we spend 90 percent of our time indoors, it makes sense that we look at indoor spaces and ask how we can make it healthier for the people inside,” said Dr. Brent Bauer, Medical Director of the Well Living Lab and Director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program. “The Lab was created to evaluate many factors like sound, light, ergonomics and temperature, and to understand how we can make the space healthier. HOK’s expertise in architectural and interior design can help us translate our research into insights that inform building design.”
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
University of La Verne opens new campus center designed by Gonzalez Goodale Architects
Construction has been completed on a new campus center designed by the noted Pasadena-based institutional architecture firm Gonzalez Goodale Architects for University of La Verne that will help create a new identity for the venerable institution. The Sara & Michael Abraham Campus Center will be dedicated on September 10 at 3 p.m., in a ceremony attended by campus officials and other local dignitaries.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils 'floating cube' design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and leaders from the Museum of Nature & Science unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park. Groundbreaking on the approximately $185 million project will be held later this fall, and the Museum is expected to open by early 2013.
| Aug 11, 2010
SOM's William F. Baker awarded Fritz Leonhardt Prize for achievement in structural engineering
In recognition of his engineering accomplishments, which include many of the tallest skyscrapers of our time, William F. Baker received the coveted Fritz Leonhardt Prize in Stuttgart, Germany. He is the first American to receive the prize.
| Aug 11, 2010
Theater Renovation—A First-Class Production
In 1985, the city of San Diego ordered the historic Balboa Theatre, its beleaguered performing arts center, to be shuttered due to seismic safety concerns. It would take another two decades to restore the landmark building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Green roof professional designation launches in Canada
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the North American Green Roof Industry Association, is pleased to announce the Canadian Green Roof Professional (GRP) Accreditation launch on October 19, 2009 at the CitiesAlive World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress in Toronto, Canada, hosted by GRHC, the City of Toronto, and the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network.
| Aug 11, 2010
American Concrete Institute forms technical committee on BIM for concrete structures
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announces the formation of a new technical committee on Building Information Modeling (BIM) of Concrete Structures.
| Aug 11, 2010
Former Colorado Governor Bill Owens retained by PCL Construction as senior advisor
Bill Owens, former Colorado Governor, has been retained by PCL Construction as senior advisor for the company’s U.S. operations, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The PCL family of companies collectively form the seventh largest contracting organization in the U.S. with major offices in 29 locations across North America, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Caribbean.
| Aug 11, 2010
Kansas City Music Hall and Municipal Auditorium
Kansas City, Mo.
The show will go on in Kansas City’s beloved Music Hall and Municipal Auditorium thanks to a fast-track renovation and expansion project that brought the 72-year-old Art Deco playhouse up to 21st-century standards.
