Diamond Schmitt Architects, along with project partner Nedlaw Living Walls, received the Interior Green Wall Award of Excellence at the 2013 CitiesAlive Conference.

The award recognizes the indoor living wall in Drexel University’s Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building. At 20-feet wide and 75-feet high, the five-storey biofilter living wall is the largest in the United States, and a first at a U.S. campus. The large wall of tropical plants acts as an active living filter that removes volatile organic compounds from the air. It is connected to the building’s HVAC system, augmenting the building’s fresh air supply with clean and humidified air.

“The living wall biofilter provides a focal point for encounters and is symbolic of the sustainable design principles that are at work within the Papadakis Integrated Science Building,” says Donald Schmitt, principal at the Toronto-based firm.

Research into the wall’s plant microbe interactions has been incorporated into the university’s bioscience department curriculum. The wall provides anecdotal evidence on everything from lower absenteeism to higher productivity to an improved sense of wellbeing by occupants of buildings with this green feature.