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Keeping Your
Keeping Your

Distance
Distance

SmithGroup Develops Software to

Facilitate Workplace Safety

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

There has been no shortage of articles in both the popular and “It’s not as easy as saying which seat is safe and which is
professional media predicting how the post-pandemic workplace dangerous,” explained Leland Curtis, an associate and co-lead
may change. In truth, it is too early to know for certain, but of computational design at SmithGroup. “Each seat must be
preliminary reports from architects who design offices indicate considered relative to the others. If you do that manually, there
that drastic transformations of the physical work environment are ripple effects.”
are unlikely. Most clients so far are focusing on adapting their “Some clients were asking for our help on this,” said Bob
personnel management practices while ensuring that their Varga, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, a vice president of the firm.
workplaces are as safe as possible when employees return. “Some had critical roles to be filled that required them to be in
Toward that end, SmithGroup, a large architecture, the same space as others. We wondered how we could figure
engineering, and planning firm with offices in 15 cities out a way to accelerate the logic diagram, so I’m not drawing
including Washington, has developed a proprietary software individual circles.”
tool that helps architects and their clients quickly assess the Curtis noted that, as the software performs its task, interesting
spacing of employee seating within the workplace, helping to patterns sometimes emerge. “It’s a recursive [repetitive] algorithm,
ensure adequate separation in accordance with CDC guidelines. and it sort of grows like crystals or fractal structures. It follows
Dubbed DISTO, the software measures distances between the same forces that the natural world follows.”
all seats within a workspace, determines which ones would Varga and Curtis emphasized that physical spacing is only
be riskiest for the employee, removes those from service, and one of the challenges in ensuring workplace safety. Ventilation
then repeats the process until all seats meet minimum spacing rates, air filtration, humidity control, and the locations of air
criteria. DISTO is not a stand-alone program, but rather a plug-in supply outlets and returns all must be carefully considered, as
app used with mainstream design and modeling software. well. “DISTO,” said Curtis,” is just one arrow in our quiver.”

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