As designers of the built environment, we have a tremendous impact on the world around us and take this responsibility seriously. Whether enhancing the human experience, providing comfort or enriching the educational experience, our buildings touch many people in many ways. We at Page understand that this responsibility is actually much deeper. With building performance and health now as equal a design driver as anything else, our multi-disciplinary team represents a unique ability to drive innovation in all of our projects. Led by our proven experience and Integrative Design approach, Page is able to effectively impact designs across a full range of clients and project types.

Integrative Design

At Page, our core values go beyond exceptional functionality and focus on the occupant experience. Whether an extended campus, urban center or a state-of-the-art laboratory building, we employ a deeply Integrative Design process that unites stakeholders early in the project planning to maximize our ability to promote positive impacts and efficiently exceed the performance goals of our clients. Drawing on the wealth of experiences that come from this process, our goals and strategies begin to tell a larger story of the human experience that often influence project outcomes outside the traditional set of solutions.

At the same time, our team understands that not every strategy is the right solution for a site or a project and that the ability to balance the criteria for each client is how true optimization happens. It is for this reason that our Integrative Design process holds such value for our clients. Decisions are made collaboratively, and through our use of parametric modeling tools, we are able to react and test multiple solutions efficiently and accurately. We analyze the impact that the various concepts have on each other knowing one may have a negative effect on another and effect the value from a Life Cycle Cost perspective. Through this, we work with our clients to realize the value of the many choices they must make, whether through passive solutions, Green House Gas reduction, resiliency, resource use reduction or material health. It is not our job to dictate commitment, rather we use our knowledge and experience to support our clients in discovering the environmental and human health priorities that best reflect the values and expectations of their constituents.

High Performance Design

An early signatory to the 2030 Challenge, Page has made energy reduction a key driver in all of our designs. Through the Integrative Design process we set performance targets for all of our projects, and discuss a comprehensive list of passive strategies first to maximize the performance of the active systems. Through our analysis, we assist clients in realizing their goals for efficient operation, conservation and sustainability by providing modeling services during the design of their new or renovated building and also for existing buildings by guiding owners in ways they can save energy. We test early and often though parametric modeling when design iterations can be explored most economically, while we employ advanced simulation modeling to fine tune the broad brush of early design.

Utilizing our engineering expertise with our state-of-the-art simulation tools, we can assess all aspects of building design and construction that have an impact on energy use and indoor quality during all phases of design, construction and occupancy. Page provides the following evaluation services:

• Parametric and Advanced Energy modeling
• Total Cost of Ownership analysis
• Photometric analysis of lighting and associated control systems
• Daylighting analysis
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling to predict airflow and thermal patterns in and around the building
• Building automation controls assessment and design
• Electrical power monitoring systems
• Benchmarking

Material Health and Transparency

As sculptors of our built environment, we rely on the myriad of building materials available to us to render our creations. For years, we have taken these materials for granted, reveling in the evergrowing variations of aesthetics and performance characteristics.

Yet in this world of bigger, better, faster, we seem to have forgotten that the spaces we create are more than artistic endeavors, they are places in which we live, learn, play and work. While recent advocacy in our industry has shown tremendous success in pushing manufacturers to lower their environmental footprint, even these efforts neglect the fact that materials to which we are exposed have a direct impact on our physical health as well.

We have made a commitment to work with and support manufacturers to promote material transparency and inspire them to continue searching for ways to minimize the use of known human and environmental health hazards. Through our Materials Matter program, we are providing labels for materials in our design library that demonstrate a commitment to health and the environment. We have developed a comprehensive digital library of preferred materials easily accessible and searchable to our team. We integrate material discussion early in the design when energy reduction strategies and material choices can inform the design. Most importantly, we invest in training to ensure that not only are our designers making informed decisions, but that they are able to share this knowledge with our clients.

Community-Based Planning and Design

Page recognizes that environmental, economic and social impacts go well beyond the boundaries of our building projects and planning studies. Issues such as climate change, clean energy, public health and social equity affect entire communities. By addressing these larger issues, we can ensure that a building or planning project is connected to and integrated with the surrounding context, and creates positive impacts on the community. This community-based approach can shape regional policies around transportation, energy and responsible water management.

While this philosophy has helped to make our planning team one of the best in the industry, we understand that these impacts are just as important at the site and project level. Drawing upon their vast experience, our planners contribute to the early analysis of building projects, helping to evaluate the community’s culture and history, as well as their needs and aspirations, and can support an efficient public approval process. This analysis often has a direct impact on siting, building massing, orientation and aesthetic appeal, and can reveal opportunities for our buildings to serve not only those who occupy them, but also the broader community.

Resiliency

Over the last 10 years, we have seen an increase in the need for cities and communities to become more resilient to crises and natural disasters. Environmental, financial and social impacts linked to events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, strong storms, drought, fire and sea level rise are soaring. As designers of the built environment we have a duty to protect our clients’ investments in the face of these risks. There are clear synergies and efficiencies that can be gained by leveraging our planning process to address issues of resiliency. Whether addressing the needs and goals of a campus or community or assessing natural risks and vulnerabilities, integrating these two processes is an effective way to create a comprehensive understanding of resilience-related challenges and how they relate to issues of durability and functionality.

The issues of resiliency can have a direct impact on building massing and orientation, as well as programming and system design, but this too is an important cornerstone of our community-based design initiative. How our projects fit into the communities that they are placed in can inform our clients on how their projects may be an important part of protecting and supporting the neighborhood around them.

Culture of Concern/Corporate Responsibility

High performance design that protects human and environmental health is ingrained in our design culture. Through sponsorship and participation in organizations like the United States Green Building Council and the Health Product Declaration Collaborative as well as numerous local initiatives, Page is working tirelessly to inspire others to do the same. We track key performance metrics to inspire us to continually move the line forward and provide yearly reports to demonstrate our commitment.

Page is a firm believer that sustainable action goes far beyond the impacts that our designs can make. Through our institutional clients, we promote community-based design that helps, in part, to address socioeconomic improvements for the broader community. As a firm, we have committed to the One+ program, which encourages design firms to give at least one percent of their time to charitable and probono causes. Through this, our firm supports dozens of charitable organizations that sustain the communities that we live and work in. In addition, we actively support the quest for knowledge by offering a paid training program to promote continual improvement as well as professional development.