Wellness guru Deepak Chopra and actor Leonardo DiCaprio will soon be neighbors, thanks to the promise of streamlined design, engineering and décor aimed at helping residents live a healthy, mindful life.
And it goes way beyond splashy amenities like vitamin C-infused showers.
That’s the feature that’s grabbed attention for the Delos Living building at 66 East 11th Street. But the East Village condo is incorporating more than 50 elements as it aims to offer a healthier place to live, taking the trend of “wellness”-focused amenities to a new level.
The building’s penthouse was recently on show, and twin brothers Paul and Peter Scialla, the CEO and COO of Delos Living, respectively, said that the portfolio of amenities are rooted in serious research.
“This has been quite vetted with a lot of science and a lot of meat on the bone when it comes to what we chose to include and what we chose not to,” said Peter Scialla.
While the building uses traditional ventilation and HVAC systems to purify the air, for example, it is also incorporates UV lighting to sterilize the space, and plants hand-picked for their ability to filter volatile organic compounds.
The apartments incorporate plentiful natural light, but the brothers said early in the development process they were fascinated by the amount of research into the effects on the body of artificial light’s angle, temperature and hue.
“You want as much daylight as you possibly can, but this has gone further, in also looking at the artificial light as well,” Paul Scialla said.
An automated lighting system and blackout shades are meant to help tenants keep their inner clocks ticking regularly. Special lighting was also employed in a bid to ward off seasonal-affective disorder, a type of depression that occurs when seasons change.
Delos sought to strike balance with flooring, too. Cork underlays allow the flooring to flex slightly, but it is also engineered to provide lumbar support.
Kitchens are outfitted with a juicing station, herbarium and a steam oven that purports to retain antioxidants and vitamins during the cooking process. Delos and the Cleveland Clinic also provide online tools to help residents track their eating habits.
And not all the life-coaching amenities are virtual. Donna Karan’s Urban Zen will facilitate fitness instruction and Delos will host an “altruistic concierge,” who will plan seminars and classes and provide advice on philanthropy.
For what it’s worth, the Green Building Certification Institute, the organization that awards LEED credentials, has bought in. It agreed in April to evaluate buildings for wellness based on Delos’s benchmarks — the kind that can make a homeowner feel good inside and out.