This District Energy Facility is a visual celebration of the numerous invisible benefits of district energy plants: resiliency, energy efficiency, reduced energy costs, decreased carbon emissions, lowered air pollution, and reduced noise.
It provides sustainable energy generation for the university’s newly expanded Allston campus, located on a deserted railyard. The building’s compact cubic form allows flexibility for surrounding future development while maintaining a singular bold and refined presence. Each unique elevation responds to interior requirements and site circulation patterns. Materials are chosen for durability, maintenance, acoustics, and sustainability.
The inner weather façade is composed of rhythms of insulated metal panels, curtainwall, and huge louvers. A wrapper of 20-foot-high aluminum fins forms a 100-foot-tall screen around the building. Fixed petal-like fins each change position by two degrees to reveal or conceal the various equipment areas within – most closed at the stack, most open at the highly visible entry corner. The fins are selectively raised above grade for service access, and at public faces to engage the passerby with technology on display.
