This new, 185,000 square foot office and entertainment complex adjacent to the Skywalker Ranch facility consists of a main office building, ancillary buildings for childcare, fitness, dining rooms and kitchen, 210-seat screening theater, and archives.  Our mechanical design features a geothermal heat pump system to service the entire complex, an underfloor distribution system throughout the main building, and a displacement ventilation system in the sound-sensitive screening room.  Critical to our design was the desire by the owner that the pristine site be protected and that mechanical equipment be hidden or incorporated into the building.   As few utilities were available on the site, the geothermal heat pump system, which requires minimal mechanical equipment, met the owner’s aesthetic and sustainability goals.  This project was the most efficient to be registered in PG&E’s Savings By Design program, exceeding California’s 1998 Energy Code (Title 24) by 40 percent.

2005 ASHRAE Technology Awardlearn more