by ArchitectureWeek

It is fitting that one of the first buildings to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council for achieving the "platinum" LEED status is a school dedicated to researching environmental issues, training research scientists and professionals, and identifying and solving environmental problems.

The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara was designed by the Los Angeles office of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership (ZGF). The building achieved its platinum status by achieving very low energy consumption and through low-impact construction practices.

The four-story, 85,000-square-foot (8000-square-meter) campus building is shaped to maximize natural ventilation. A narrow band of offices has windows that open to ocean breezes, and the courtyard that the offices encircle further enhances airflow into the laboratory spaces downwind. The rectangular lab wing gives a more conventional face to the orthogonal grid of the rest of the campus.

The building provides space for applied and quantitative ecology, earth systems sciences, environmental engineering, environmental microbiology and toxicology, and environmental policy and resource management. It houses faculty and administrative offices, research laboratories, conference facilities, teaching laboratories, and support facilities.   >>>

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The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, overlooks the Pacific Ocean at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Photo: Timothy Hursley The interior courtyard, with interactive spaces at lower and upper levels, facilitates daylighting and natural ventilation. Photo: Timothy Hursley   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.