The new John and Frances Angelos Law Center unites classrooms,faculty offices, administrative space, a legal clinic and the law library under a single roof. The building functionally & symbolically defines the Law School as an academic & social nexus, offering state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities while fostering an interactive, communicative environment for collaboration between students, faculty,and administrators.
The building form consists of three interlocking L- shaped volumes which articulate the various functions of the building program and define a narrow atrium. This atrium is critical to both the technical performance of the building as well as to furthering the social and pedagogical goals of the Law School.
Following a new daylight approach glazed office partitions transmit daylight entering the exterior wall through the office and into interior corridors and the atrium, reducing the artificial lighting demand and maximize visual access to daylight. To further minimize energy consumption LED lighting is used throughout the whole building. A structurally-integrated heating and cooling system is coupled with a hybrid ventilation system as the primary interior conditioning approach. The radiant slab system maintains the massive concrete structure at a stable temperature, while a low-volume dedicated outdoor air system with enthalpy wheel heat recovery provides ventilation when outdoor conditions are not favorable for natural ventilation. If outdoor condtions are favorable occupants of all offices, teaching and library spaces are notified by a green light and can locally control the operable windows.
The John and Frances Angelos Law Center is the first large-scale opportunity for the University of Baltimore to demonstrate its intent to pursue strategies that eliminate global warming emissions and achieve climate neutrality.
As of February 2014 the John and Frances Angelos Law Center is a LEED Platinum certified building. By utilizing a number of closely-integrated strategies a 43% energy cost savings over an ASHRAE 90.1-2004 baseline building was achieved.
Photographers: Brad Feinknopf and David Matthiesen.