Stephen E. Selkowitz, an expert on fenestration, daylighting and lighting, knows that laboratory tests alone are not enough to push the needle forward on building energy performance. "We need to test integrated building systems in the real world," says the senior adviser for building science of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Toward that end, Selkowitz helped conceptualize a two-year "living lab" study in Manhattan that should be completed in 2015. It is yet another brainchild of Selkowitz, the mastermind behind the Berkeley lab's just-completed Facility for Low-Energy Experiments in Buildings.