The Liberty Media Center addition is designed to use 50 percent less energy than an average building of the same size. This reduction in energy use occurs primarily through architectural strategies. The building shape and the locations of its windows were determined with careful consideration of the sun’s path across the sky, bringing even levels of north daylight into the building to reduce artificial lighting usage, and keeping low east and west sun out of the building to reduce cooling energy use in the summer. The building also has an extremely draft tight building skin and properly designed insulation. These architectural strategies work in concert with efficient, sensibly designed mechanical and electrical systems to greatly reduce energy consumption without adding cost to the construction.
A photovoltaic system, integrated in the design of the building, offsets the 50 percent energy use remaining. This means that the media center addition is a net zero energy building: On an annual basis, it makes as much energy as it uses. This project was designed in collaboration with the Munly Brown Studio. Instead of viewing energy conservation as a matter of adding costly high performance mechanical/electrical systems to the building, we develop ultra-high performance buildings based on maximum utilization of the site’s resources: sun, wind, shade, and topography.
The media center is LEED Certified Gold by the United States Green Building Council.
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