Billerica, MA – EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA in the U.S. and Canada, recently announced that its R&D facility’s Sagamore Building in Billerica has been awarded WELL Certification at the Gold level by the International WELL Building Institute. The architect was Ellen Zweig and the contractor was JLL – Jones Lang LaSalle.
The Sagamore is the first building to receive WELL Gold Certification for New and Existing Buildings in the U.S. This prestigious distinction was awarded through IWBI’s WELL Building Standard (WELL), which is the premier building standard focused on enhancing people’s health and wellness through built environments.
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The Sagamore Building was completed last year to further expand the R&D campus, featuring innovative labs, open office space, bleacher seating, huddle rooms, and technology-free quiet zones across three buildings and approximately 275,000sf.
Created through seven years of rigorous research and development working with leading physicians, scientists, and industry professionals, the WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based medical and scientific research. WELL is grounded in a body of medical research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend more than 90% of our time and the health and wellness impact on us as occupants.
To be awarded WELL Certification by IWBI, the Sagamore Building underwent rigorous testing and a final evaluation carried out by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which is the third-party certification body for WELL, to ensure it met all WELL Certified Gold Level performance requirements. WELL Certification ensures that the built environment is designed to improve the nutrition, fitness, mood, sleep patterns, and performance of its occupants.
