Archinect - News

Miller Hull's redwood laboratory for UC Santa Cruz aims to be light on the land

2022-03-31T12:57:00-04:00

Seattle-based firm The Miller Hull Partnership has designed an important new laboratory building for the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) that will have a light impact on the lush natural landscape that surrounds it.

Developed to offset the anticipated growth of UCSC’s research and instruction, the new Environmental Health & Safety Facility includes space for laboratories, waste management, storage, and administrative offices in addition to providing room for life, health, and safety resources.

Per the architects: “The site includes a small knoll and is defined by the steep ravine and mature redwood trees. The building is constructed on caissons to be light on the land and allow natural drainage and existing root systems to remain below the building. All stormwater is managed on-site with direct infiltration, and a below-grade storm drain detention structure with outfall to level spreaders distributed across the site.”

Image courtesy The Miller Hull Partnership

In respons...

California to build solar panels over canals following UC graduate’s research

2022-02-14T11:26:00-05:00

A consortium in California has announced its ambition to construct a network of solar panels over a segment of the state’s canal system. The project, named Project Nexus, will build on research by a UC Merced environmental engineering graduate, which we originally reported on back in May 2021.

The graduate, Brandi McKuin, was part of a team who demonstrated that covering California’s 4,000 miles of water canals in solar panels could potentially reduce water evaporation by 82%. This reduction would save 63 billion gallons of water per year, enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of 2 million people.

Covering the entire state’s canal system in solar panels would also generate 13 gigawatts of renewable energy, equal to 17% of the state’s current solar capacity. The move would deliver half of the projected new solar capacity required by California ...

Idea of building solar panels over California’s canals floated by researchers

2021-05-05T12:05:00-04:00

Researchers from UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced have proposed a “solar canal solution” to address the state’s water shortages, energy needs, and climate goals. In what they describe as a “win-win” for both water and climate in California, the researchers outlined the benefits of covering 4000 miles of canals across California in solar panels, including promoting renewable energy development, conserving water, and improving the quality of the natural environment. The solution is proposed by Roger Bales (Distinguished Professor of Engineering, University of California, Merced) and Brandi McKuin (Postdoctoral Researcher in Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz).

Unsurprisingly, the initiative would generate massive volumes of electricity. The researchers estimate that the system could provide 13 gigawatts of renewable energy, which is roughly half of the new sources the state needs to add to meets its clean energy goals: 60% from carbon-free sources by 2030 and 100% ...

Urban street-network sprawl is trending globally, new study finds

2020-02-11T15:10:00-05:00

Satellite images dating back to 1975 allow researchers to map how millions of cul-de-sacs and dead-ends have proliferated in street networks worldwide. [...] A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences charts a worrying global shift towards more-sprawling and less-hooked-up street networks over time.

The study's authors, Christopher Barrington-Leigh at McGill University and Adam Millard-Ball at UC Santa Cruz, were able to identify the global trend toward urban street-network sprawl by analyzing high-resolution data from OpenStreetMap and satellite imagery of urbanization since 1975 and then measuring the "street-network disconnectedness index (SNDi), based on every mapped node and edge in the world."

The documented global drop in street connectivity due to the proliferation of urban and suburban developments that feature cul-de-sacs, dead-ends, and gated communities should require a "rapid policy response, including regulation and pricing tools," the study suggests, "to avoid further costly lock-in during this current, final phase of the urbanization process."

The researchers write that their street-network measure can predict future climate, energy, health, and social outcomes related to urban form.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects to design UC Santa Cruz's new Institute of the Arts and Sciences

2014-06-06T19:59:00-04:00

The University of California, Santa Cruz recently selected notable New York firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects to design the university's new Institute of the Arts and Sciences. Competition was tough indeed, as TWBTA was one of three finalists that included Allied Works Architecture and Patkau with Fong & Chan.

UCSC states the new building will be the first of its kind at a research university, with a cross-disciplinary focus that brings the arts and sciences -- and their relations to other fields -- all under one roof. The Institute is one of UCSC's priority initiatives in a comprehensive fundraising campaign that was announced in fall 2013.

The architectural plan of the 30,000 sq.ft multi-functional facility includes space for student and faculty research, site-specific installations, exhibitions, seminars, residencies by artists and scholars, and other public gathering events. The Institute will also curate traveling art exhibitions and feature projects relevant to UCSC's cu...