Proposal Summary

This proposal outlines the scope of research for the re-design of the Ballenger East Building in Virginia. Two depth(Lighting and Electrical) and two breadth(Mechanical and Sustainability) topics of analysis/study are proposed for spring 2009. Both the depth and breadth analyses are intended to look at the building systems in an integrated fashion. The main idea behind these analyses is not only to discover ways to improve one particular system, but to improve the all targeted systems collectively.

Breadth Proposal: Mechanical

Within an area of roughly about 900 ft2 in the president¡¦s office, there are 4 huge windows (each is about 40ft2 in area) facing the north-east direction. It is anticipated that daylight would be the main source of illumination during the day. Even though electric lighting consumption would be reduced, solar heat gain is increased. Thus the mechanical load will be affected as a result. Thus investigation about impact of solar heat gain on mechanical load in the president¡¦s office is proposed.

Breadth Proposal: Sustainability

The Ballenger East Building is not designed with the goal of obtaining LEED certification. Therefore analyses will be performed to determine the feasibility of LEED certification and further increase sustainability by using different materials within the building. Analyses will be performed according to the changes made to the building envelope and corresponding mechanical and structural systems.