Photo by Brad Feinknopf

The Angelos Law Center is the first LEED Platinum law center in the U.S.

Designed to earn certification as the first LEED Platinum-rated law school in the country, the Angelos Law Center in Baltimore required extensive coordination efforts to achieve its performance goals. The 12-story building's concrete-frame structure is central to its green strategy. The design also included a system of in-slab radiant heating and cooling. Architects, engineers and contractors spent more than a year coordinating the in-slab and out-of-slab utilities with the concrete structure to allow for the climate system with thermally active slabs. In order for the system to function, the contractor left the concrete exposed. A two-story mock-up helped the team establish quality standards and resolve the appearance of exposed columns, slabs, embedded devices and key interfaces. Energy and daylight modeling helped the team optimize the curtain-wall design in response to site orientation; window sizes, density of frit patterns and configurations of sunshades were based on these studies. Automated sunshades reduce solar heat gain, control glare and maximize daylight. Natural ventilation and user-notification control systems also decrease energy use.

Project Team

Owner: University of Baltimore

Architect: Ayers Saint Gross; Behnisch Architekten, Boston

General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.

Engineers: Cagley & Associates, Rockville; Mueller Associates; RK&K Engineers

Climate and Energy Modeling: TransSolar, New York City