By Duke Graham, Principal & Co-Founder
I have a confession to make. I went to my office. I needed to pick up some essential equipment, and of course I followed all CDC and local safety guidelines. And I was the only one in our DTLA office. For that matter, I was the only one in the elevator, and I felt like I was the only one in the building. I know there are others working there, but it seemed very empty. And quiet. It. Was. Awesome.
I’m sure you can relate. Whether you’re remote working in slippers, co-working with a 2nd grader, or just going a little stir crazy, you’ve probably imagined some type of return to the office. And I know we’re “re-imagining” everything in life right now. But I think we’ll go to the office again. Someday some way.
So, I thought I’d share some basic feelings I had when I went back for that day. Yes, I stayed the whole day. So quiet. Did I mention that?
The office and building appeared very clean. That and the lack of people made me comfortable about not being at risk of contracting the virus. And since nobody was sharing the space with me, I also knew I wouldn’t be likely to unknowingly infect others if I was infected but asymptomatic. Between my stints of blissful productivity, I tried to think of what measures would increase confidence in office workers to return to the office. Certainly, distance can be maintained between people; that may mean staggered schedules, alternating remote working days, or reconfiguring the office. And a comprehensive testing policy could greatly reduce the risk of asymptomatic spread. I came to think guidelines are manageable in an office setting, with some modifications to our behavior. And there are many solid recommendations out there.
As a commissioning agent, I thought of the building HVAC, plumbing, and other systems in our building and how they may have been dormant for a while, then started up again. In those cases, things don’t always revert back to their previous stable condition. I wondered if we were getting the same amount of ventilation and if the water had sat in the pipes for a while when no one opened a faucet. I also wondered about the indoor air quality (IAQ) in the building; if humidity was being managed, CO2 being monitored, and if the wildfires were impacting the air quality inside the building.
And lastly, because IAQ seems to have taken first place in the LEED category contest lately, I wondered if the building was still performing as intended and not wasting energy. For example, I suspect many building operators increased ventilation rates (a good IAQ measure) without a specific plan to monitor energy use. This can also lead to unwanted humidity variations, which can have a counterproductive effect on IAQ. I’m thinking about bringing our IAQ testing equipment into the office to spot check our own air quality, just to get a baseline understanding of the indoor environment currently in our office. I know my coworkers will be interested in the results.
Aside from the obvious need to be absolutely sure our offices are safe before returning, we want to feel confident that we are entering a stable, comfortable and healthy environment. For our staff, I’m thinking of a basic re-entry checklist that can assure us of indoor air and water quality, and ongoing environmental stewardship. This will be above and beyond our specific COVID-19 protocols.
There are now several good resources out there for re-entry checklists and protocols:
If you’re reading this, you’re likely a client or colleague in the area or in our industry. Reach out to us if you’d like to discuss what we’re doing. If we can help you with any metrics or measurements, let us know. We don’t know what office life will look like in one or five years. But we know, as part of the industry that designs, builds, and operates the built environment, we owe it to ourselves and each other to get ahead of some of these questions. The sooner we start talking about it, and putting some of these metrics into practice, the better. So reach out, and let’s get started.