WKU’s Ogden College Hall is the first educational laboratory in the United States to achieve
WELL v2 Gold Certification
by the International WELL Building Institute, maximizing the safety, health and overall wellness of the building’s occupants.
That certification ranks it as the healthiest university lab building in the world.
“We wanted this multi-departmental science building to be student friendly, utilitarian, energy efficient and a healthy environment for work and learning,” WKU Provost Cheryl Stevens said. “We are proud of the final result and look forward to enhanced student learning in its innovative spaces.”
Ogden College Hall opened in 2018, replacing an aging lab building from the 1960s. In addition to a student-focused design of lab and other spaces that provided innovative opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, project stakeholders made student health and wellbeing a priority by seeking a design to meet the WELL Gold standard, even with a tight budget.
Tracy Steward of
CMTA Consulting Engineers
, who was the WELL Project Administrator and Design Engineering Project Manager, said the WELL standards are usually reserved for office and commercial buildings, but the principles are just as important in educational settings.
