Andrew Pielage's Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse

Artist: Andrew Pielage
Medium: Digital Print

We all know that downtown Phoenix is seriously lacking in the cool modern architecture department but after walking into the Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse you might just forget about all that. The  courthouse has a dramatic six story glass curtain-wall on the north face, and contains a drum-shaped special proceedings courtroom with a glass-lens ceiling. But that's not even the "coolest" part ...

Inspired by the misting cooling systems that bring down the temperature of outdoor cafes in warmer climates, Richard Meier brought in the firm Ove Arup to design a similar system for the Phoenix courthouse. Ove Arup's evaporative cooling system brings outside air into the atrium just under the roof of the courthouse, where it moves across the space to the courthouse block.

Here, air is sprayed with water from nozzles located along the sixth floor south corridor. As it absorbs the moisture, the air cools down and drops to the atrium floor, where it joins overflow air from the air-conditioned balconies and exhaust air from the enclosed portions of the building . The air then returns to the outside through slots about ten feet above the atrium floor on the east facade. By using this method, Ove Arup contends the temperature will drop at least 20 degrees on hot summer days.

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