Tuesday’s blizzard, winter storm Juno, hit the Boston area hard and we took the opportunity to compile some of our storm photos as a tribute to the AIA’s #ilookup campaign and the winter weather. From using a macro lens to capture individual snowflakes to the beach in Winthrop, the photos ran the gamut of locations and details. When we look around, sometimes we’re confronted with a winter wonderland and the prospect of shoveling for hours.
And a few photos taken yesterday (Wednesday, Jan. 27) …
Dewey square, early Wednesday morning
Along the waterfront by our office building. Normally we can see the Boston Tea Party Museum from this vantage point.
In contrast, one colleague’s family home on Nantucket, with winds over 75 mph, that’s quite a drift!
This Earth Week, we’ll be covering five landmark buildings exemplifying new approaches to building performance and sustainability.
The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Klarman Building is the first hospital in the northeast to implement chilled beams in an inpatient setting. Early energy analysis demonstrated that the use of chilled beams would be the best way to reduce building energy use.
For this strategy to work, however, the peak thermal loads of the façades could not exceed the capacity of the chilled beams. An integrated design approach and in-house modeling allowed for constant tuning of the façade to optimize glazing, solar exposure and massing. The building orients glazing to face true north and south to minimize heat gain and maximize occupant comfort, resulting in a 15% reduction in peak solar load.
Beyond performance, the distinctive serrated terracotta façade reflects the scale and cadence of individual patient rooms, providing a delicate scale and texture to the façade.
#earthweek #designalways #buildingscience #performalism #facade