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Solar Energy Lab Wins Design Award, Stands Out for Sustainable Materials

BERKELEY, Calif. — AIA East Bay awarded the University of Berkeley’s solar energy lab the Citation Award for its remarkable design in late 2015. Chu Hall, an alternative energy research facility housing more than 100 researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), followed Berkeley Lab’s mission of creating “sustainable, carbon-neutral sources of energy” during its design and construction.

Designed by Berkeley-based SmithGroupJJR, the three-story, 390,000-square-foot building cost $59 million to complete. A green roof and open plaza, which connects to nearby buildings, is landscaped with drought-resistant and native plants. Built with renewable and recycled materials, the building also offers large windows to provide daylight to offices and non-light sensitive labs.

Three levels make up the solar lab. The first level, named Plinth, is subsurface and takes up more than 50 percent of the overall square footage. The second level is on the ground floor and called Breezeway. Aside from the lobby, this level has shared office spaces and conference rooms. The final level is the Corona, which houses wet lab spaces and the research technology needed to assemble nanoscale components.

For sustainable purposes, the building also incorporates a lower-approach cooling tower, LED lighting, solar hot water panels, high-efficiency condensing boilers, an evaporative pre-cooling hybrid system, low-E glazing on the exterior, a runaround heat recovery system and photosensor-based automatic light dimming. The lab also occupies a small footprint by building into the hill it sits upon.

Adding to Berkeley Lab’s many buildings, Chu Hall is the center for the DOE-funded Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), the largest research program in the nation dedicated to the artificial solar-fuel energy and technology. Laboratories and offices house photovoltaic and electro-chemical solar energy systems in hopes that scientists can improve on what plants can do in making cleaner transportation fuels.

Constructed by McCarthy Building Companies’ San Francisco office, the lab aimed for LEED Gold certification. Opened and dedicated on May 26, 2015, Chu Hall is named after former Berkeley Lab Director Steven Chu, who became the U.S. Energy Secretary.