Santa Barbara, California, USA
Designed by the architectural firm KieranTimberlake along with landscape architects The Office of James Burnett on behalf of the University of California Santa Barbara, the Jeff and Judy Henley Hall is home to the Institute for Energy Efficiency, a research institute with a mission to develop breakthrough technologies that save energy while advancing the standard of living worldwide.
Jeff and Judy Henley Hall: Institute for Energy Efficiency was recently awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The 49,908-square-foot, three-story facility, designed by the architectural firm Kieran Timberlake, includes a 128-seat lecture hall, 18 laboratories, 26 offices, conference rooms, and group office spaces that accommodate 174 graduate students.
The new Henley Hall is a state-of-the-art, LEED Platinum research facility consisting of wet and dry laboratories, collaboration spaces, conference rooms, a 124-seat lecture hall, and offices. It is a building that breathes.
Leaning on the natural Santa Barbara climate, solar shading and an automated natural ventilation system are optimized to maximize thermal comfort while eliminating mechanical cooling in many program areas.
An open-air, three-story commons connects student areas and faculty offices to sealed, highly sensitive laboratory spaces.
Sensitive to its place and well-oriented to campus, the building sits on a prominent campus perimeter and borders an environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA).
Its transparent facade maximizes fantastic views of this protected habitat and the Santa Ynez mountains beyond while allowing onlookers to view the research activity inside.
It joins the chorus of buildings around it, standing out while fitting into the university’s motif of Santa Barbara sandstone, three-story massing, and a unifying material palette with deep overhangs, including a terra cotta umbra.
This showcase building is to be as close to zero-net energy as possible, incorporating numerous technologies and design features that make the building a space that can adapt to future changes in the Institute’s needs.
Henley Hall provides a foundation for many potential research inquiries, resulting in a design that matches the Institute for Energy Efficiency’s world-class scholarship with dynamic collaboration, both within and outside of the laboratory environment.
Project: Jeff and Judy Henley Hall: Institute for Energy Efficiency
Architects: KieranTimberlake LLP.
Design Team: James Timberlake, Jason Smith, Mark Davis, Steven Johns, Patrick Morgan, and Tatiana Baglioni
Landscape Architects: The Office of James Burnett
General Contractor: Sundt
Client: University of California Santa Barbara
Photographers: Bruce Damonte
