The Adaptable Workplace Lab (AWL) is a thoroughly innovative workplace - created through a public-private-university partnership - located in the GSA Headquarters Building in Washington, DC. The 10,000 square foot AWL space, found in the 3rd wing of the 7th floor, features multiple high performance workplace technologies.

The AWL project is the result of a unique partnership created under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, and formed between GSA, Carnegie-Mellon University's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, and private sector companies.

Some of the key features of the AWL are as follows:

• Raised flooring has been installed above the original floor, providing easy access to the power, voice and data cables routed under the floor. The underfloor space also serves as a distribution channel for the ventilation system.
• Plug-and-play technology allows computers, telephones, heat pumps, and all other wired components to be easily moved, added to or removed from the basic grid of service, with minimal disruption and no waste.
• Individual controls at workstations allow occupants to customize their own work environment.
• Modular workstations consist of components that can be rearranged, added to, or removed as desired. Workstations also have stackable vertical panels that, when lowered, provide occupants with easy visual and verbal access to co-workers, and, when raised, provide occupants with the privacy they need to concentrate on independent work.

The adaptable workplace benefits an organization by providing organizational flexibility, individual comfort and productivity, technological adaptability, and environmental sustainability:

• The ease with which the various systems of the adaptable workplace can be reconfigured facilitates regrouping and additional collaboration among team members or greater privacy for an individual occupant, as needed. This flexibility will also enable a new organization to move into the space in much less time than a move into a traditional space would take. Shorter renovation times also translate into lower construction costs and less loss of productivity.
• Natural lighting, ergonomic furniture and keyboards, individual environment controls, and state-of-the-art lighting and HVAC systems are some of the many ways in which the comfort of occupants is ensured. Occupant comfort has been shown to translate into greater productivity, as expressed by such measures as the ability to perform tasks with greater speed and accuracy and for longer periods, to be more creative, to sustain stress more effectively, and to work with others more harmoniously.
• Raised flooring and plug-and-play systems allow future technologies to be adapted easily. For example, when fiber optic cable is to be added to enhance data transmission, it can be simply dropped into the space under the raised flooring, with no renovation work necessary.
• All systems and materials used in the laboratory are designed to preserve energy and to ensure the thermal, visual, ventilating, and acoustic quality of the indoor environment. For example, HVAC and lighting systems are high-efficiency, with user controls and with daylight and occupancy sensors so that thermal conditioning and light are delivered only when needed.