For the past three decades, the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory (ESBL) at the University of Oregon has been focusing on how to reduce a building’s energy load while bringing more light into the interior.
This past April, ESBL and local architecture firm SRG Partnership took another step toward that goal with the opening of a new library at Portland Community College. The 40,000-sf library is equipped with four “cones of light,” spherical reflectors made from extruded aluminum that distribute daylight from the library’s third floor to illuminate the second.
Kent Duffy, an SRG Principal, says that the cones, which spread from five feet in diameter at the top to nine feet at the bottom, were preferable to a daylight shaft from the roof, which would have obstructed the third floor.
GZ (Charlie) Brown, ESBL’s Director and Professor of Architecture at the college, says the library is cooled by a passive energy system that obviates the need for air-conditioning. The windows on the second floor are left open at night to cool the building’s mass. During the day, the windows are closed to allow the building mass to cool the interior. The cones help circulate the cool air.
Duffy and Brown say it took some doing to get the college to sign on to the cones of light, which were only included midway through construction. “Everyone is reluctant to be the first to try something new,” says Brown.
Also on the library Building Team: PAE (mechanical engineer), Catena (SE), Keylight + Shallow (lighting), O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders (CM), and Inline Commercial Construction (GC).
Read about more innovations from BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report.
Related Stories
| Jul 21, 2014
16 utility questions to answer during your building project
We need electricity to power our building projects, along with water and gas and a faultless sanitation system. That’s what we think about when we think about utility requirements for our building project, but are we missing something? SPONSORED CONTENT
| Jul 21, 2014
Commercial real estate development growing at strongest pace since recovery began: NAIOP report
Industrial, warehousing, office, and retail sectors see strong gains; Texas leads the nation in construction-value stats.
| Jul 21, 2014
Economists ponder uneven recovery, weigh benefits of big infrastructure [2014 Giants 300 Report]
According to expert forecasters, multifamily projects, the Panama Canal expansion, and the petroleum industry’s “shale gale” could be saving graces for commercial AEC firms seeking growth opportunities in an economy that’s provided its share of recent disappointments.
| Jul 21, 2014
Workplace trends survey reveals generational patterns in office use
Data analysis from Mancini•Duffy indicates significant variations among age cohorts in the workplace.
| Jul 20, 2014
IPD contract saves time and money for cancer center [2014 Building Team Awards]
Partners share the risk and reward of extreme collaboration on this LEED Silver project, which relies heavily on Lean principles.
| Jul 20, 2014
Why every major U.S. city should be nurturing ‘Innovation Hubs’
Today, more than ever, tech districts are the key to economic growth for metro markets. A new report from the Brookings Institution calls tech hubs the superchargers of innovation economies and creators of highly coveted tech jobs.
| Jul 18, 2014
Contractors warm up to new technologies, invent new management schemes [2014 Giants 300 Report]
“UAV.” “LATISTA.” “CMST.” If BD+C Giants 300 contractors have anything to say about it, these new terms may someday be as well known as “BIM” or “LEED.” Here’s a sampling of what Giant GCs and CMs are doing by way of technological and managerial innovation.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Construction Management Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, Barton Malow, Hill International top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest construction management and project management firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Contractors [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Turner, Whiting-Turner, Skanska top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest contractors in the United States.
