Challenges and opportunities in engineered retrofits of buildings for improved energy efficiency and habitability

Abstract

n contrast to almost every other artifact produced bymodern industrial society, (automobiles, jet aircraft,locomotives, ocean going vessels, etc.) the design,construction and operation of buildings is still highly frag-mented and comparatively unsophisticated. This is thecase even though the construction industry amounts toover one trillion dollars of the US economy. Materials ofconstruction, coatings, cladding, as well as electrical,mechanical and other components (windows, roofing,heating, ventilation, air conditioning etc.) may be selectedindependently with little, or no, thought given to theirinteractions and the effects of their coupling on the build-ing’s performance. For some architects and building own-ers, especially of high-end structures for urban officespace, the principal goal of design has often been visualimpact, which is to say that form dominates function.This kind of architectural statement is accomplished onlywith enormous up-front capital investments and with hugepenalties in downstream operating costs due to low effi-ciencies inherent to the design. To say that energy effi-ciency suffers most in such buildings is an understatement.The financial model in such cases is that the architecturalstatement will be afforded with collection of very highrents. In some cases, little or no consideration is or waspaid to the habitability of the space in other words thebuilding’s indoor ecology was at best of secondary impor-tance.There are notable examples of such extravagant buildingsin almost every large American city, as well as around theworld; they are not hard to find, but they are emblematic of aby-gone era. These buildings, constructed in the 20th century,symbolize much of what must be changed in the 21st centurybuilding industry; functionality and performance must trumpexcesses of form. As evidence that the society’s view of thesebuildings and buildings in general is changing rapidly, thepremier icon of the ‘‘sky-scraper era’’, the Empire StateBuilding, has undergone a deep retrofit to bring its efficiencyto the level of LEED Gold and this symbolizes the new stand-ards that can be achieved for older commercial buildings aswe move further into the 21st century