Baltimore Field Trip

By Alicia Luthy

Hello everyone! I am Alicia Luthy and am currently attending Southern Illinois University for a Masters of Architecture.  In May, I received my Bachelor’s degree from here as well. Architecture is interesting to me because it is always exciting and changing. There are so many different styles and different ways that it can be improved and manipulated. Ultimately, architecture is something I am very passionate about. I chose to study architecture at SIUC for a few different reasons. One reason is Carbondale is close to home and all of my family. Also, the program is thesis based allowing me to choose the topic of my design. The third reason was financials; SIUC offers a great education for an unbeatable price and the program is only 15 months.  We are currently in our second semester of the Master’s program.

 Last week, our design studio traveled to Baltimore, Maryland for the week. For my first post I decided to write about some of the architecture we experienced. As we return this week back from Baltimore, many have asked how the trip was. Baltimore was a unique experience filled with a lot of adventures to say the least. The trip included a lot of unique architecture that was divided into different neighborhoods. While in Baltimore we toured two firms, RTKL and Ayers Saint Gross. While visiting these firms, it was exciting to see how life in a firm will be. The Ayers Saint Gross firm was located in the old Procter and Gamble Plant inside the Joy building in which they designed their office. Ayers Saint Gross is a firm that is best known for designing educational buildings for different universities. While in Baltimore, we got to experience some of the great architecture by Ayers Saint Gross. We visited their LEED Platinum building, John and Frances Angelos Law center for the University of Baltimore.

The John and Frances Angelos Law Center costed $84 million and was completed in 2012. It is 189,700 GSF consisting of classrooms, labs, study rooms, a library, law clinic, lounges, and meeting rooms. Being LEED Platinum, the building is very sustainable. The project efficiency is 58% energy use reduction and 56% water use reduction. The building uses natural ventilation through the center of the building allowing for a decrease in energy for HVAC. The high efficiency building envelope also contributes to the energy efficiency. Other sustainable features include green roofs, active slab heating and cooling, daylighting, and storm water management. While visiting the building, we were able to go onto the green roof. The building offered some great views that over looked Penn Station and the surrounding area.  The John and Frances Angelos Law Center has received many awards including two USGBC Maryland Wintergreen Awards. One of the awards was for the excellence in sustainable design, and the second is the President’s award for acknowledging UB’s leadership in creating an iconic design for Downtown Baltimore.  The building was a very thought out design and I recommend everyone to look it up.

http://asg-architects.com/portfolio/ubl-john-and-frances-angelos-law-center/#