You walk toward your car, fearing the worst. Carefully, you take the keys out of your pocket, insert, turn, open. Death. The super-heated air is shocking, but you ignore it. Hurrying to start the engine, sweet cold air blasts into your face at full force. Yet, in your haste, there is a momentary lapse of thought as your hand reaches down for the metal end of the seatbelt. You realize the consequences of this action, but not quick enough to stop flesh and metal from touching. It's too late. Now there is a new brand on your hand to accompany that new summer tattoo. The moral of this story: the sun and glass don't mix well in Arizona.
Anybody in the Valley for more than a minute knows this place is hot. Yet, like the bipedal primates that came before us, we adapt - from the clothes we wear to the buildings we occupy. Lately, however, looking around campus, one may wonder if many of the new buildings reflect a creative adaptation worthy of a higher learning institution such as ASU.
The Lattie F. Coor Hall has a glass skin around the entire structure from the second floor to the roof. This glass allows the heat of the sun to penetrate to the interior of the building, but does not enable the heat to leave. While some of the glass is used as windows, other parts have a wall directly behind creating a "shadow box." Temperatures in these areas can reach over 90 degrees, above a comfortable ambient temperature.
Consequently, professors overlook corner offices in Lattie F. Coor Hall -- usually prime real estate -- as their two walls of glass create an uncomfortable heating situation.
Additionally, since the building was erected, blinds have been placed in every available window to curtail heat absorbed internally, disturbing its intended aesthetic.
And all day long the sun's rays beat upon the large glass facade on the ASU Foundation Building's south side, warming the interior of the building.
While the campus saves money since creating a more efficient way of providing cool air throughout the University, these new buildings reflect an inconsistency in ASU's energy policies.
ASU's advanced and efficient method for cooling the entire University is jeopardized when it builds glass boxes in the middle of the desert. While the Central Plant provides chilled water, used to cool the campus, ultimately the energy to run the coolers comes from fossil fuels burned by APS.
Alternatively, there are a number of buildings on campus that provide comfortable atriums and cozy interiors, such as the Social Sciences Building and the Education Building. Their exteriors are a blend of energy efficient design and aesthetic style, even though they are older buildings.
While opting for more popular modern designs, the new constructions on campus are distancing energy efficient methods from their goals. Next time you walk by the Foundation Building or Lattie F. Coor Hall, do not admire their clean, glass surfaces. Instead, think about the increase in ASU's energy resources necessary to cool these buildings, and ask yourself if you enjoyed paying the recent rise in tuition.
Noah Lewkowitz is an architecture graduate student. Reach him at noah.lewkowitz@asu.edu.
