INSIDE ASES
chAIR’S cORNER
diversify our solar tours
Across the country, you’ll find larger buildings
that use the sun and climate to delight us.
By John Reynolds, FAIA
• The Oberlin College Lewis Center in Oberlin,
Ohio, with daylighting and a Living Machine for
wastewater treatment,
• Stanford’s Center for Global Ecology with cooling
towers and night roof-spray cooling in Palo Alto,
Calif.,
• Cal Poly’s path-breaking Center for Regenerative
Studies in Pomona, Calif., and
• The Lillis Business School at the University of
Oregon in Eugene, Ore., with façade-integrated
PV, daylighting and natural ventilation.
The early fall days grow shorter, the morning
air is chill, trees warm with color, and the
ASES National Solar Tour arrives, on a Saturday,
near you. The 2007 Tour attracted an estimated
110,000 people, in 46 states plus Washington D.C.
and Puerto Rico, displaying some 5,600 buildings
in 2,900 communities. We even had a tour in
Alaska. More communities will participate this
year.
• The Patoka Nature Center at Patoka Lake, Ind.,
with passive heating and moveable window insula-
tion;
• The Zion Canyon Visitor Center at Zion National
Park, Utah, with Trombe walls (heat-absorbing walls
that store solar heat during the day and radiate it
slowly at night), daylighting and cooling towers (us-
ing simple water evaporation to cool the building);
• The Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve
in Fairmont, Calif., with direct-gain solar heat and
earth tube cooling (using the temperature of the
soil to cool air for circulation through the building);
• Island Wood on Bainbridge Island, Wash., with
daylight, passive solar heat and rainwater storage;
and
• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory Visi-
tor Center in Golden, Colo., with daylighting, direct
gain and Trombe wall solar heating.
Many schools offer extensive daylighting, such
as those by Mike Nicklas’ Innovative Design firm
throughout the Carolinas. Some offer passive
cooling, such as Petaluma Junior High in Petaluma,
Calif., with several cooling towers. The Montessori
Island School in Tavernier, Fla., features shading and
natural ventilation.
Homes represent the core of the Tour. At its
inception in 1995, the National Solar Tour featured
passive solar homes and solar water-heating
systems. Since then, residential PV systems have
blossomed, “green” materials are now widely avail-
able, and rainwater collection systems have joined
the systems to be seen on the Tour. This has caused
some confusion, with “Green Tours” competing
with our National Solar Tour in some locations. In
Oregon, a statewide “Green and Solar Tour Guide”
is published with support from the Energy Trust,
listing all local tours with accompanying articles on
Public libraries with extensive daylighting can be
various solar approaches. This magazine, SOLAR
found throughout the United States. Examples
TODAY’s Get Started 2009, is based in part
• Mt. Airy, N.C. (one of architect Ed Mazria’s early
works);
include —
MIkE uFzINGER
• Center Moriches, N. Y.;
on a more detailed solar primer published by the
Northern California chapter of the American Solar
Energy Society.
Some have wondered what rainwater collection has
The Aldo Leopold nature center near Madison,
Wis., uses daylighting in place of electric lights.
While the great majority of buildings on the Tour are
residences, most of the really innovative solar archi-
tecture is institutional. Most businesses and schools
are closed on Saturdays, but several categories of
large buildings are almost always open to the public
for at least part of the weekend. Nature and visitor
centers may be the most obvious candidates. For
instance, you can tour—
• The Aldo Leopold Nature Center outside Madison,
Wis., with daylighting (nonelectric light sources) and
solar heating;
• Mercer County, N.J. , including Trombe walls;
• Seattle Public Library’s new main branch
(architect Rem Koolhaas);
• Mount Angel, Ore. (architect Alvar Aalto); and
• Lake View Terrace in California’s San Fernando
Valley, with a cooling tower providing passive
cooling to the entry lobby display area.
Most libraries are open on Saturdays, and with
advance notice, most will accommodate groups of
solar tour visitors.
Universities offer some spectacular examples:
• Georgetown University’s mammoth, design-
integrated photovoltaic (PV, or solar electric) roof
array in the District of Columbia,
• Carnegie Mellon’s rooftop daylight and PV labora-
tory in Pittsburgh, Penn.,
to do with solar power and energy efficiency. Ask
yourself how that water vapor got into the sky. If
you have a cistern full of rainwater, you don’t need
city water to flush toilets or irrigate gardens. That
saves the energy your municipal water system uses
to treat incoming groundwater and wastewater. Just
as with solar energy, some locations have it easier
than others: dry summers require huge rainwater
storage tanks. These are another and welcome form
of investment in sustainability.
In the future, will solar residences become so com-
monplace that tours are no longer necessary? In
such a welcome circumstance, perhaps a competi-
tion would develop. What prizes should be offered
for a winning solar performance?
Contact John Reynolds, FAIA, at chair@ases.org.
