Jason Smith, AIA

Duchossois Real Estate's 223,000 square foot interdisciplinary headquarters and self-contained incubator space is a new, 20-acre campus for Chamberlain Group, Inc, in Oakbrook, Illinois. In addition to office space, it includes a state-of-the-art Design Lab, fully customizable and reconfigurable Conference and Training centers, cutting edge Showroom and Exhibit space, full-service Café, fitness center, and integrated outdoor experiences complete with exterior amenities.

The building form… Show more

Duchossois Real Estate's 223,000 square foot interdisciplinary headquarters and self-contained incubator space is a new, 20-acre campus for Chamberlain Group, Inc, in Oakbrook, Illinois. In addition to office space, it includes a state-of-the-art Design Lab, fully customizable and reconfigurable Conference and Training centers, cutting edge Showroom and Exhibit space, full-service Café, fitness center, and integrated outdoor experiences complete with exterior amenities.

The building form creates a striking presence in direct response to the environment, bending in to the sun's path. The form is self-shaded, preventing unwanted solar gain in summer while simultaneously harnessing the sun prior to office hours to heat the interior in winter. As a result, the southern facade is transparent, high performance glass with integrated, passive sun shades tuned to further optimize the balance of desirable and undesirable heat gain. The result is a minimized HVAC system size and substantial EUI improvement.

As the shape and skin are honed to balance heat and cooling, the depth is an intelligent aperture to daylight and views. The floor plate carefully intertwines the site's mature woodlands with a series of highly flexible, interchangeable workplace modules, providing incredible access to natural light with over 75% of it relying on daylight for over half the year.

The building grows from a sweeping berm that connects the lobby, showroom, and dining experiences with an intensely collaborative, vertically connected hub at the building's core. As it encircles a reflecting pond and woodlands, it joins major indoor and outdoor spaces to encourage meaningful collaboration and provide moments of respite.

The building design grows from CGI's vision to create a strategic, transformational platform that emodies their dynamic work process, empowers and inspires, and becomes sunlit, high-performance, humble beacon that springboards from their legacy far into to the future. Show less

Phase 1 of a strategic master plan, the Center for Advanced Care is a LEED Silver, 162,000 square foot integrated healthcare platform in Chicago. It includes infusion, radiology, and surgical oncology as well as digestive health and outpatient surgery. It also includes a community garden that offers a serene respite and unique year-round landscape experience, containing the region's largest expanse of exterior evergreen living wall.

The building's unique form is a simultaneous solution… Show more

Phase 1 of a strategic master plan, the Center for Advanced Care is a LEED Silver, 162,000 square foot integrated healthcare platform in Chicago. It includes infusion, radiology, and surgical oncology as well as digestive health and outpatient surgery. It also includes a community garden that offers a serene respite and unique year-round landscape experience, containing the region's largest expanse of exterior evergreen living wall.

The building's unique form is a simultaneous solution to external and internal drivers. The sweeping glass facade, shaped and tuned to dramatically reduce incident solar radiation, blocks unwanted solar heat gain while filtering desirable natural light through a series of passive sunshades. Internally, it defines the edge of public corridors, which are outfitted with open lounge areas to create a softly undulating circulation spine that culminates in a vertically connecting atrium and building entry. The effect is an easily navigable, built-in architectural wayfinding system that connects key components and secondary entries of the entire hospital. High-performance masonry walls create a unifying thread in the design, extending the Freemason's legacy on this campus into the future. Openings within these walls are intelligently linked to planning moves in order to maximize the effect of daylight within an often opaque building type. This ensures light and views at the ends of corridors, within patient rooms, and bends light deep into the floor plate. In combination, these factors elevate the building experience while contributing to substantial energy savings.

The Center for Advanced Care aspires to create a place of healing that transcends the traditional hospital experience and elevates the human spirit. Through a holistic, fully integrated design process, it embodies a vision of creating the best place for patients to heal, physicians to practice, and associates to work. Show less

The simple form and fluid skin of the tower is sleek and modern, presenting a dynamic image for the district and Shenzhen at large.

Early in the design process, a series of solar studies were completed to establish the performance of the design as a base-case scenario to improve the towers’ energy performance and user comfort levels. The studies included incident (direct) solar heat gain analysis, diffuse (indirect) solar heat gain analysis, daylighting analysis, radiance analysis, wind… Show more

The simple form and fluid skin of the tower is sleek and modern, presenting a dynamic image for the district and Shenzhen at large.

Early in the design process, a series of solar studies were completed to establish the performance of the design as a base-case scenario to improve the towers’ energy performance and user comfort levels. The studies included incident (direct) solar heat gain analysis, diffuse (indirect) solar heat gain analysis, daylighting analysis, radiance analysis, wind pressure mapping, view analysis, and social and program mapping. The resulting shape is a gently curving façade that helps light to be distributed evenly throughout the interior, increasing daylighting while minimizing solar gain. This bowed façade improves the distribute of daylight over a standard flat façade.

A vertical notch at the corners of the buildings act as a visual break between façades. These breaks also add an experiential bonus to the corner offices and units, which differentiates it from the rest of the floor space. In order to further optimize daylighting and visual comfort for users, horizontal louvers were positioned to redirect light into the spaces while reducing excessive light levels near the glass. The louver is deepest near the center of the façade where the contrasts are greatest. The louver tapers to a minimal dimension towards the corners where daylighting needs and contrast mitigation are lowest.

Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center represents the intersection between performance and function. It expresses an understanding of local environmental conditions through the intense refinement of passive technologies to create a timeless architectural expression. The building’s façade was strategically designed to work within the site’s dense urban environment and it’s unique design helped the building achieve a LEED-Gold rating. Show less

Qintai International Tower is a 248-meter, 146,000 square meter, headquarters tower and podium in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The tower includes hotel and office space, occupied by CNTC Hubei Provincial Tobacco Corporation and other tenants, while the podium contains retail, restaurants and a conference center and ballroom. At the top of the tower, a special executive lounge will offer spectacular views of the surrounding cityscape.

The tower’s unique form is both culturally and… Show more

Qintai International Tower is a 248-meter, 146,000 square meter, headquarters tower and podium in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The tower includes hotel and office space, occupied by CNTC Hubei Provincial Tobacco Corporation and other tenants, while the podium contains retail, restaurants and a conference center and ballroom. At the top of the tower, a special executive lounge will offer spectacular views of the surrounding cityscape.

The tower’s unique form is both culturally and environmentally contextual to the city of Wuhan. The genesis of the form in the competition phase related to the Qin, a traditional Chinese musical instrument similar to a zither, featuring strings that are stretched over pegs that form a raised S curve over a rectangular wooden frame. The instrument is similar to the one featured in a Chinese legend with deep significance to the culture of Hubei, which in turn inspired the design process early on.
During the ongoing concept design phase, the cultural influence of the building has been developed in relation to the building’s energy performance. Informed by a rigorous parametric analysis, the façade now bows outward in a diagonal line that ascends northwest up the tower. This shape has been adjusted to optimize self-shading and minimize solar heat gain, an effect augmented by the fact that both the tower and podium’s narrowest exposures are mostly to the east and west, from which the sun is harshest. In addition, the tower’s smaller floor plates allow for greater use of daylight harvesting.

The cultural importance of Moon Lake and the city’s two rivers are emphasized on Qintai International Tower's 25,863 sm site by a series of pools and other water features that surround the tower and podium. The water features are also performative elements of the design, making the air feel fresher to building users in Wuhan’s hot climate. Water for these elements will come from stormwater and/or recovered condensate from the complex. Show less

Vantone Center Tianjin will be a new corporate headquarters and one of the most sustainable buildings of its kind, in Tianjin, China. At 185 meters (607 feet), Vantone Center will also be one of the taller structures in downtown Tianjin’s thriving central business district. Download Project PDF
The project is being designed for LEED Platinum or Gold certification. The project consists of 64,000 square meters of above-grade Class A office and high-end retail space, along with an additional… Show more

Vantone Center Tianjin will be a new corporate headquarters and one of the most sustainable buildings of its kind, in Tianjin, China. At 185 meters (607 feet), Vantone Center will also be one of the taller structures in downtown Tianjin’s thriving central business district. Download Project PDF
The project is being designed for LEED Platinum or Gold certification. The project consists of 64,000 square meters of above-grade Class A office and high-end retail space, along with an additional 30,000 square meters of below-grade retail and parking. The building also features a soaring, 27-meter-tall private club for building tenants at its top.

The tower’s elegantly twisting, faceted form signifies the rising importance of Tianjin, while the undulating pattern of the cladding of the north and south facades evokes both the rippling surface of the Haihe River, two blocks to the east, and the region’s tradition of bamboo weaving. The south facade provides stunning views of the Tianjin business district’s planned central park; a sunken garden at the base of the building will provide an underground connection to the park and its planned subterranean retail complex. The two-story, high-end retail podium on the north side of the building complements the area’s bustling shopping district and offers a handsome amenity on its publicly accessible green roof and restaurant terraces.

The tower’s sustainability features include a high-performance, high-thermal-mass exterior wall system with alternating metal and inward-angled glass panels that block solar heat gain; and extensive use of self-shading and daylight harvesting. The east and west facades use alternating metal and glass panels that balance solar heat blocking, optimized shading for the low-angled morning and afternoon sun, and the availability of views of the park to the south. Show less

The 119-level, 636-meter tower in Wuhan, China will be comprised of about 300,000 square meters of floor area, of mixed use program including office, luxury apartments, hotel, and private club at the penthouse level. Wuhan Greenland Center features a uniquely streamlined form that combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, softly rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action that builds up around supertall towers. The building’s extremely efficient… Show more

The 119-level, 636-meter tower in Wuhan, China will be comprised of about 300,000 square meters of floor area, of mixed use program including office, luxury apartments, hotel, and private club at the penthouse level. Wuhan Greenland Center features a uniquely streamlined form that combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, softly rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action that builds up around supertall towers. The building’s extremely efficient aerodynamic performance will allow it to minimize the amount of structural material (and the associated embodied carbon) needed for construction.

The tower’s three corners rise from its tripod-shaped base and taper upward, culminating in an arched tip above the dome at the top. The corners will be of smooth curved glass, contrasting markedly with the more textured curtain wall cladding the body of the tower. The curtain wall will enclose a composite concrete core with steel framing. Apertures in the curtain wall at regular intervals will assist in venting wind pressure against the tower; the apertures will also house window-washing systems and air intake and exhaust systems on mechanical floors. Show less

Chicago has long been a world leader in innovations of all kinds, and its response to the need for drastic environmental action to combat climate change is no exception. In 2008, Chicago developed the Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP) to begin to address these issues. This book is an examination and exploration of the issues that the CCAP deals with and how they may be implemented, focusing on the Chicago Loop area. It also examines the 2030 Challenge, which has an aggressive goal of 80… Show more

Chicago has long been a world leader in innovations of all kinds, and its response to the need for drastic environmental action to combat climate change is no exception. In 2008, Chicago developed the Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP) to begin to address these issues. This book is an examination and exploration of the issues that the CCAP deals with and how they may be implemented, focusing on the Chicago Loop area. It also examines the 2030 Challenge, which has an aggressive goal of 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 for new and renovated buildings. The book is divided into eight key areas: Buildings, the Urban Matrix, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, Water, Waste, Community Engagement and Energy. Illustrated with full colour photographs, diagrams and models throughout, this wonderful book takes a clear and easy-to-understand approach to this complex topic, providing innovative and insightful strategies for efficient and effective carbon reduction. Show less

This award-winning competition entry for a research facility was designed to engage the intense climatic conditions of its desert setting. Incorporating vernacular design strategies into cutting-edge architecture and engineering systems, its evocative dune-like shape maintains a predominantly north-south aspect ratio, allowing for enhanced control of daylight and views—an effect reinforced by the gentle inward slope of the southern facade.

The exterior form catches and drives wind into a… Show more

This award-winning competition entry for a research facility was designed to engage the intense climatic conditions of its desert setting. Incorporating vernacular design strategies into cutting-edge architecture and engineering systems, its evocative dune-like shape maintains a predominantly north-south aspect ratio, allowing for enhanced control of daylight and views—an effect reinforced by the gentle inward slope of the southern facade.

The exterior form catches and drives wind into a labyrinth integrated into the building foundation system, which allows for the pre-tempering of air and rejection of airborne particulate. This pre-cooled air is then fed to the air-handling plants serving the independent buildings of the superstructure or to the external street that joins with water features and landscaping to allow for passive cooling.
The building skin, which uses the high-performance, lightweight ETFE, was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. The cladding is also designed to intelligently respond to solar radiation and wind. The lower floors engage the inward-sloping skin, allowing for direct views with minimal thermal penalty. The upper floors disengage from the skin, allowing for a climatic buffer and the integration of a PV array to enhance buoyancy-driven wind-flow through the street.

Power for the building can be completely supported by solar energy. We address water scarcity in the region through stringent requirements for washroom fixtures, controlled evaporation of water features and reduced heat rejection demands from cooling towers.

A variety of outdoor shaded and protected areas and courtyards are designed for social interaction and informal activities. The central Al Mamsha circulation space encourages sustainable transit and creates a walkable thoroughfare. The benefits from walking include establishing relationships and encouraging spontaneous collaboration, especially between disciplines. Show less

Park Gate is a 5,000,000 square-foot mixed-use development—including offices, retail and a hotel—that creates a visual portal into the adjacent Jumeirah Gardens in Dubai. The project’s six gently curving towers, arranged in facing pairs connected at the top by three vaulted canopies, surround a unique urban oasis inspired by the Middle East’s ancient and modern souks—covered markets that also serve as places to rest and socialize.

This central plaza, further protected by micro-canopies… Show more

Park Gate is a 5,000,000 square-foot mixed-use development—including offices, retail and a hotel—that creates a visual portal into the adjacent Jumeirah Gardens in Dubai. The project’s six gently curving towers, arranged in facing pairs connected at the top by three vaulted canopies, surround a unique urban oasis inspired by the Middle East’s ancient and modern souks—covered markets that also serve as places to rest and socialize.

This central plaza, further protected by micro-canopies, boasts expanses of drought-tolerant greenery and reflecting pools. From balconies and sky gardens in the surrounding towers, users will enjoy inspiring overlooks of this outdoor “great hall,” which features indigenous, salt-water-tolerant plants (reducing energy needed to desalinate water) and reflecting pools that also act as thermal sinks, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night.

High above, the main canopies perform three sustainability functions at once: harvesting solar energy through photovoltaics on top; creating shade, which will reduce heat gain in the towers and can reduce temperatures on the ground by 10 to 15 degrees; and incorporating trellises from which hanging plants will grow in a thriving microclimate irrigated by a gray-water misting system. The canopies are semi-permeable (70 percent closed, 30 percent open) to allow dappled light through to ground level.
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Tryon Farm is an intelligent, resilient development and community of small homes on a 170-acre Michiana farm of preserved meadows, dunes and oak wood forests. The overall design approach weaves a combination of solutions, ranging from simple alternatives to sophisticated techniques at varying scale from building details to community resources.

At the master plan scale, architecture is responsive to the ecologically distinct areas on the farm. Homes along the pond emerge gently from the… Show more

Tryon Farm is an intelligent, resilient development and community of small homes on a 170-acre Michiana farm of preserved meadows, dunes and oak wood forests. The overall design approach weaves a combination of solutions, ranging from simple alternatives to sophisticated techniques at varying scale from building details to community resources.

At the master plan scale, architecture is responsive to the ecologically distinct areas on the farm. Homes along the pond emerge gently from the landscape, with the earth rolling continuously over the roof and sides of the home. A single glazed facade opens views of the water's edge, and a series of skylights and solatubes bring ample natural light and views of the sky to each room of the residence. In the woods, homes are vertically oriented in order to maneuver between mature tree growth while simultaneously giving individuals and families the experience of living up in the tree canopies. These design solutions inherently and dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment even before the architecture has fully taken shape.

All water leaving the site is clean and does not require treatment by a plant. Constructed waste-water wetlands treat all grey- and black-water in the community. The natural functions of vegetated, soil, and organisms within treat various water streams so effectively that the output is technically potable, although local municipalities have certified it as white water.

The homes themselves use high-performance residential construction. They utilize advanced framing techniques to minimize construction material. Exterior walls and roof are fully insulated with recycled content. Heat is delivered in the most efficient way possible, through a radiant floor system, providing heat where it's needed most: near the floor. Windows and openings are positioned to work with micro-climatic wind flow patterns to maximize natural cooling in addition to providing views. Show less

Designed as an efficient laboratory factory module that can be deployed in several different configurations and orientations, the design is tuned to the local climate and optimized to enhance the comfort of those using the space on a day-to-day basis. A series of outdoor amenities include a landscape buffer around the perimeter of the site, a centralized sunken garden and tiered terraces that provide places of respite designed to embrace Hangzhou’s legacy as “the city in the garden.” These… Show more

Designed as an efficient laboratory factory module that can be deployed in several different configurations and orientations, the design is tuned to the local climate and optimized to enhance the comfort of those using the space on a day-to-day basis. A series of outdoor amenities include a landscape buffer around the perimeter of the site, a centralized sunken garden and tiered terraces that provide places of respite designed to embrace Hangzhou’s legacy as “the city in the garden.” These gardens also collect and treat stormwater on site, a new concept for this area of the country.
A centralized showroom is designed to celebrate the innovative products being designed and built on campus, while programmed space for health and wellness reinforces a commitment to recruitment and retention of its employees.
The energy footprint of these massive structures is minimized by utilizing a gradient approach to planning, where the amount of energy needed at the center of the building is incrementally reduced through a layering of passive techniques. Additionally, the building form is designed to promote passive air flow. The rounded form dramatically reduces stagnant air zones and vortices, promoting even further passive cooling. Renewable strategies include energy-generating BIPV integrated into the exterior curtain wall, and a roof mounted PV array on each of the three structures. Conceptual results indicate that it could be possible to make one of the three factories net zero, based on onsite renewables.
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A minimal footprint in a young woodland prairie, this high performance, human-centric design has at its heart is a gathering space and solarium, passively heating and cooling the building while fostering connection and community.

The new Indiana Toll Road facility is designed to be the epicenter for 157 miles of toll road monitoring, maintenance, and administration. The two-story facility is organized around a central atrium which functions as the hearth both programmatically—as the… Show more

A minimal footprint in a young woodland prairie, this high performance, human-centric design has at its heart is a gathering space and solarium, passively heating and cooling the building while fostering connection and community.

The new Indiana Toll Road facility is designed to be the epicenter for 157 miles of toll road monitoring, maintenance, and administration. The two-story facility is organized around a central atrium which functions as the hearth both programmatically—as the primary amenity and gathering space—and performatively—as a warm winter solarium and shaded summer porch. The workspace zone is folded around this central hearth, allowing for total daylight in the entirety of the floor plate. The solarium passively heats and cools the workspace, tuning the design to the climate while increasing comfort. Furthermore, the interior environment is wrapped in a wall system that passively conditions the outdoors through sunshades and high-performance insulation. As a result, the building is highly energy efficient and provides enhanced comfort.

Sited in a young woodland, with sprawling grasses and mid-density trees surrounded by a toll road clover loop, the landscape design leaves over 80 percent of the site untouched, protecting the budding natural environment. Furthermore, the storm water design is leveraged into an amenity in the creation of three wetland pond basins. A walking path weaves through these natural features as well as the on-site photovoltaic array, providing a unique wellness amenity. Show less

Located on an urban in-fill site, The Flex Engineering Building
activates the urban edge of Loyola University’s campus and extends
academic programs into the neighborhood. The design offers a lens into the world of Loyola’s future-forward engineering program. Conceived as a one-room school house, the Flex Lab creates a multi-use learning space complete with labs, collaboration areas, and maker spaces for rapid prototyping. The environment features exposed and accessible infrastructure and… Show more

Located on an urban in-fill site, The Flex Engineering Building
activates the urban edge of Loyola University’s campus and extends
academic programs into the neighborhood. The design offers a lens into the world of Loyola’s future-forward engineering program. Conceived as a one-room school house, the Flex Lab creates a multi-use learning space complete with labs, collaboration areas, and maker spaces for rapid prototyping. The environment features exposed and accessible infrastructure and modular planning to maximize flexibility, supporting a variety of STEM activities and academic departments. The team creatively utilized site constraints and opportunities to adhere to a strict budget with the re-use of an existing foundation, which prevented the need for substantial excavation as well as underpinning of adjacent buildings. By utilizing this existing infrastructure, the team was able to focus project efforts on acoustic and daylight goals. Inserting skylights limited flexibility, meaning the Flex Lab’s only opportunity for daylight and visual connection to the outdoors is its west façade, which is raised by several feet to allow natural light to travel throughout the space. A custom electrochromatic glazing system (electronic tinting) modulates the opacity of the glass based on the intensity of the sun. This means the glass tints, in response to afternoon glare conditions, and eliminates solar heat gain while maintaining visual connectivity to the exterior. Show less