Emerson College

Cool engineering on sunset boulevard

Located on Sunset Boulevard amidst the studios of Hollywood, Emerson College’s new Los Angeles Center provides a permanent home for its internship program. The dramatic ten-story, 107,000 ft², building contains both instructional and administrative facilities, as well as student accommodation, retail units and a 3-level 120,000 ft² car park.

CHALLENGE

With the need to unite student housing, classroom facilities and administrative offices to one location, a key element of the design was to create different zones within the space, dedicated to creativity, learning and social interaction, all within a sustainable, energy efficient building. BuroHappold Engineering was commissioned to provide a number of services to optimize the final design, which incorporated two slim towers enclosing a central courtyard, with a walkway connecting them.

SOLUTION

The BuroHappold team performed sunlight path analysis to determine the best arrangement for the center to avoid overshadowing and excessive solar gain. From these findings, we devised an automatic shading system for the east and west towers, which tracks the position of the sun and also responds to weather conditions, maximizing daylight without the associated solar impact.

This work also informed our decision to use chilled beams for internal heating and cooling, showing them to be the most efficient and cost-effective solution. To create further energy savings, chilled water is only provided to dormitory spaces when comfort conditions cannot be met via natural ventilation alone, and solar thermal energy is harnessed to generate domestic hot water. The lighting systems throughout make use of both local occupancy and dimmer controls.

VALUE

Our involvement in this project has seen the new Los Angeles Center achieve 15% energy cost savings over baseline figures and a 31% reduction of potable water use. The LEED Gold certified building is on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.