Since the International Well Building Institute introduced its WELL standard, creating healthy spaces to live and work has prominently factored into lighting and lighting controls design.

There is a greater understanding that buildings need to serve their occupants better.WSP’s lighting group has positioned itself as prioritizing people, and placing their practical and aesthetic objectives at the forefront of the firm's design strategies.

The firm has also made it a priority to keep up with rapidly changing technology and understanding the impact of the internet of things (IoT)— the term used for the interconnection of computing devices embedded into everyday objects, which are capable of transferring data over a network without human interaction.

WSP has been at the forefront of systems design for the internet of things, and specifically how lighting serves the infrastructural needs of the IoT, as well as how lighting can benefit from the explosion of data. The firm has a rigorous understanding of current technologies, and an informed sense of what the future holds.

For example, LED light sources and lighting controls have forged tremendous energy use and cost savings.

Increasingly, the WSP lighting designers think of lighting in terms of systems, including the controls that define functionality for energy savings and for the health and wellness of building occupants. Ensuring that those systems truly serve the needs of the client and the people who actually inhabit the space is a key consideration for each design.

The lighting design team brings a holistic understanding of the full range of expertise required to design lighting and controls systems, to assess a system’s constructability, and to ensure the system will successfully function within the context of the overall project.

One of the firm's current lighting projects is 2+U, a prominent 38-story office tower under construction in Seattle. WSP is providing the lighting design, as well as the mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineering for the 587-foot tower with 683,000 square feet of office space, which is scheduled for completion next year.

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