Harm A. Weber Academic Center

Award of Merit: Higher Education/Research

The 88,000-sq-ft Harm A. Weber Academic Center at Judson University in Elgin, Ill., houses the expanded Benjamin P. Browne Library and the Division of Art, Design and Architecture.

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The building is organized into three elements: library/studios block; classroom block shaped like a bowtie; and studio/office in bar shape.

Seeking a facility worthy of an architecture program seeking accreditation, the university conducted a design competition, and British designer Alan Short was selected in part because his plans called for a natural-ventilation system.

Short has implemented projects involving natural ventilation in the United Kingdom where humidity is not significant. The challenge in Elgin was to deal with humidity and light where these factors can damage contents in a library-art-design application.

Naturally Ventilated

The building will draw cool air at the lower level, circulate it and exhaust it through roof terminals, creating a stack effect that draws and exhausts naturally buoyant air.

In the library/studio, the stacks are imbedded in the perimeter. In the studio/office “bar” element, the stacks are along the south facade.

As heated air moves, it produces a vacuum and pulls air through the spaces, but warmed air does not naturally go sideways.

In the Weber building, the air is draw laterally by the pressure created by the stacks.

A fully natural ventilation system was not possible because of the temperature fluctuations in the winter and summer and periodically throughout the year.

As a result, a hybrid natural mode/mechanical mode system was developed to minimize the use of conventional heating and cooling. Generally, the building will operate during the spring and fall in natural mode, but the mechanical mode will engage during the other seasons or whenever the need arises.

The dominant building material is concrete in part for thermal mass, a key component of the natural ventilation system. In most cases the ceilings and walls are exposed as radiating surfaces for warmth or coolness.

The exterior walls are built out about 4 ft from the precast concrete walls. This volume contains the chase spaces for the vertical air flow in the natural ventilation scheme.

In addition to natural ventilation, the building has an integrated photovoltaic system and other thermal recovery features.

The integrated thermal recovery system is expected to cut operational fossil fuel costs by at least 50% by optimizing solar gains in the spring and fall. The building is expected to earn a LEED silver rating.

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