owp/p

Argonne National Laboratory, located just outside of Chicago, is a leading international research facility. The Illinois Science Center, featuring laboratories, classrooms, offices and an auditorium, is the cornerstone of a plan to bring a $900 million rare isotope accelerator complex to the Argonne campus. The client’s primary concerns were equipment costs, maintenance costs, and, in particular, energy costs. The architects used energy modeling and building-simulation programs to find alternate solutions for building orientation, massing, and the design of building systems. A hybrid ventilation system (among the first designed for use in the Midwestern United States) employs both mechanical ventilation and cooling as well as passive, natural ventilation strategies that allow almost all building occupants to have individual control over their office environments. Heat stacks dot the top of the center above a central atrium space, helping to give the building its distinctive form and to promote ventilation. The atrium also helps distribute natural light through the building, decreasing the need for artificial lighting