The Village Works has earned the first WELL Coworking Rating in the United States for a flexible workspace, marking a milestone for health-focused standards in the coworking segment. The designation applies to the company's location at 769 Centre St. in Boston and was awarded through the International WELL Building Institute in collaboration with The Instant Group.
The WELL Coworking Rating confirms that the space incorporates design and operational strategies intended to support the health and well-being of users in a flexible office environment. The recognition is based on the implementation of evidence-based practices that align with the WELL Building Standard, which sets benchmarks for buildings and spaces seeking to promote wellness-oriented outcomes.
Co-founder Melissa Tapper Goldman said The Village Works was conceived as a human-centered coworking space, and she described the WELL Coworking Rating as a validation of the team's efforts over the past decade. She noted that achieving the designation as the first coworking space in the U.S. to receive this rating underscores their long-term focus on well-being and leadership in the flexible workspace category.
Goldman added that the process of pursuing the rating reinforced the alignment between The Village Works' values and the WELL framework. She said it also updated the team's understanding of current best practices and opened additional opportunities to reflect those commitments in how the space is designed and operated.
The WELL Coworking Rating is derived from research-backed health strategies within the broader WELL Building Standard and spans nearly 50 features. These features are organized across 10 WELL concepts, which include elements such as air quality, water quality, lighting, thermal comfort, encouragement of movement and physical activity, and nourishment.
By applying these concepts to the coworking and flexible workspace context, the rating serves as a way to confirm and showcase how such environments can meet measurable health and well-being criteria. The Village Works' Boston location now functions as an example of how flexible office operators can incorporate evidence-based wellness standards into their physical space and day-to-day operations.
The collaboration between the International WELL Building Institute and The Instant Group on this rating highlights growing attention to health performance in shared work environments. As coworking and flexible workspaces continue to evolve, frameworks like the WELL Coworking Rating provide a formal mechanism to evaluate how effectively these spaces support the people who use them.
