COTE Meeting Minutes for March 2002
March 13th, 2002

In attendance: Rick Ames, David Damon, Lynne Deninger, Martine Dion, Lance Fletcher, Kenneth Fisher, Madeline Fraser, Ana Gordan, Jay Jacoby, Liz Karp, Anja Kollmuss, Chris Leary, Arlen Li, Lennie Lombardo, Charlotte Matthews, Robert McElaney, Stephen Moore, Jenna Tate, & Paul Zaferion.

Announcements: Updates on the following items

• Ten Shades of Green Exhibit
  • Date confirmed for the exhibit is September 2002.
  • Contributions and sponsorship is still needed so please contact Chris Leary of The Stubbins Assoc. for more information.
  • There is also a need to publicize the event so any assistance would be appreciated.
    

Focus Topic: Solar and Light in Green Architecture
(Number three of our four sessions.)

Martine Dion
architect
Symmes, Maini, & McKee Associates

• Selling daylighting to the client
  • The goal is to come to the client with hard data.
  • Martine discussed several sights for gathering hard data (quantitative & qualitative).
    • Herman Miller
    • Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce article
    • Environmental Design + Construction article
    • Lighting Design Lab
    • Walmart
• Daylighting effects:
  • Less lighting needed
  • Less heat generation
  • Greater user comfort
  • Higher quality of life
  • Higher productivity

Key Point:

• More hard data is needed to present consise arguments.

Liz Karp (Gensler)and Paul Zaferiou (Lam Partners)

"Top Daylighting Strategies for an Infill Building in Harvard Square"

• Liz lead off discussing the Gensler's design approach for an infill building that was to become administrative offices for Harvard University.
  • With windows on one side (essentially), cuts in the floor plates were required to bring natural light into all 4 floors.
• Paul showed a video showing Lam's process of building models for the lighting study.
  • Scaled models were built "light tight" except for those that would exist in the design.
  • Materials would be used that would give same/similar reflectivity as those that would be incorporated inot the design.
  • The model is mounted on a spinning rig on Lam's roof and calibrated to the sun's coordinates (geographic location and time of day factors).
  • The camera was mounted through an apperature per floor showing the lighting effect.

Key Points:

• That getting natural light into an infill building though complicated can be accomplished.
• Getting client "buy-in", in terms of money for the studies, is essential to present a clear argument.
  

Next meeting will be held on Thursday evening April 11th at BSA, 52 Broad Street, Boston, MA.