The Pen y Bryn Upper School at Sandy Spring Friends School is the in the United States to achieve a gold level certification for the WELL Building Standard.
Created by the , an organization focused on the relationship between design and health, the standard measures how design concepts like air, water, light, and thermal comfort impact overall well-being. In the Quaker school located in Sandy Spring, Md., floor to ceiling windows let natural light fill the atrium where students gather in between classes. Each classroom and office space has its own thermometer for temperature control. Even the floors, which were built using specialized materials to reduce reverb, are meant to help foster occupant well-being.
鈥淚 remember saying that it was like a Netflix movie,鈥� Upper School senior Olivia Liddie said. 鈥淜ind of like, you know, how the high schools look like walking in and seeing the colors and the lights.鈥�
The Upper School鈥檚 design, which was done by the architecture firm Stantec, was also meant to be representative of the school鈥檚 Quaker roots, and it was constructed as part of the school鈥檚 strategic plan to upgrade its facilities with new technology.
鈥淲hen I say we were built on a wellness model, that came from our Quaker identity from the start,鈥� said Dr. Rodney Glasgow, the head of school. 鈥淚t [coalesces] around Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.鈥�
For its teachers, a building centered around its occupants鈥� health and wellness influences the way they teach within its open spaces and glass walls designed for collaboration.
鈥淚t鈥檚 designed specifically for people to engage, to cross paths with each other, to stimulate cross-departmental collaboration, cross-divisional collaboration, student-teacher engagement and teacher-to-teacher engagement,鈥� said Eduardo Pol贸n, the Upper School鈥檚 global languages department chair.
鈥淚t provided a model for our future buildings,鈥� said Lauren Miyoshi, the school鈥檚 chief operations officer. 鈥淲hat of these technologies and these innovations can I implement in an existing building to cure, maybe, an acoustics problem or to drive better air quality?鈥�
Miyoshi said she鈥檚 also looking at how to take the lessons she learned from the WELL Building Standard and implement them into the campus鈥� other buildings without having to build new structures.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to build a new building to make wellness a part of the building you鈥檙e in,鈥� Glasgow said. 鈥淚t just gives us permission to really put wellness at the center of everything we do and everything that we decide.鈥�
