Summary: 355 Eleventh, San Francisco, is an historic and previously derelict turn-of-the-century industrial building now refurbished to be as beautiful as it is energy efficient. Part of this refurbishment is a new corrugated skin to replace the original, historically significant steel cladding. The skin is perforated with small holes designed to allow light and air to pass through new windows hidden behind it. This perforated barrier controls solar heat gain while enabling cross-ventilation of the interior. The double-skin façade becomes a screen for sunlight and air while maintaining the stoic, industrial character of the original building. Behind that screen new, operable windows allow user control of airflow. The final building received Gold-level LEED certification.

Summary: When GESOBAU AG decided to modernize the 15,000 residential units it had built in the Märkisches Viertel locality of Berlin in the 1960s, it devised a three-point plan that would be both economical and repeatable elsewhere. It would re-skin the buildings to enhance energy conservation while also converting heating and hot water systems to environmentally friendly technologies. In addition, GESOBAU instructed tenants on how to operate their apartments for optimum energy conservation using new smart technologies. The first 538 apartments—shown here—were converted in 2008 and the project is due for completion in 2015. The primary energy saving as a result of the re-skinning is 71 percent of previous loads or 316 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Summary: Evergreen is a Canadian non-profit organization with a mission to bring communities and nature together. It is now restoring Toronto’s Don Valley Brick Works from a collection of deteriorating industrial buildings to a centre for urban sustainability. Energy conservation measures include high-efficiency building envelopes, operable windows and solar chimneys that minimize the need for mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning. Also included in the retrofit of this historic site is a solar co-generation system for power, heating and cooling and a biomass heating system using sustainably harvested waste wood from local industry and urban forestry programs. Smart building systems like intelligent building automation and lighting control systems make the Brick Works truly modern in their function. The Brick Works is seeking a LEED Platinum rating for a number of buildings in the complex.

Summary: Built in 1907 as an industrial warehouse for the Port of Paris, the Docks of Paris is a long concrete structure on the edge of the Seine river. In 2005, the city of Paris decided to create a new cultural program and building on the site. Architects Jakob + MacFarlane opted to retain the existing structure, adding what they call the ‘Plug-Over’ – an external skin inspired by the flow of the Seine as well as the pedestrian promenades along its banks. The overall skin is comprised of a glass exterior, steel framework, wood decking, and a grassed, faceted roofscape. The skin protects the existing structure by forming a new layer containing most of the public pathways through the building. The building was retrofitted to the High Environmental Quality (HEQ) Certivea guidelines. It achieves a 25 percent energy efficiency benefit over the design requirements.

Summary: The twin 40-storey hotel towers of the Alpha Resort stand in the beautiful forest covered mountains of central Hokkaido. Built during Japan’s economic bubble, the towers suffered spalling of the external tile cladding and condensation and dampness internally. The towers’ new owners, Hoshino Resorts, asked Klein Dytham Architects to develop an external colour scheme to reduce the visual impact of the towers, as well as to re-clad them and improve their insulation. KDa decided to camouflage one tower to suit winter conditions and the other to suit summer. The external renovation is the first project of its kind in Japan. It required new skills and technologies including external insulation fitted by a specialist Canadian company. Re-skinned, the buildings consume about 30 percent less energy than they did prior to the retrofit.

Summary: The Library’s redevelopment included an expansion and re-skinning to accommodate the needs of the growing local community. It was the desire of both Cambridge Libraries & Galleries and Kongats Architects to keep the existing Carnegie building and return it to a state of good repair to reinforce the significance of having a Carnegie building in the community. The vision of Cambridge Libraries & Galleries was to provide a much-needed library expansion to accommodate the needs for the neighborhood and to give it a showcase building that would play a key role in the revitalization of the town.

To showcase the original Carnegie building, a earlier additions and renovations were selectively demolished while retaining the structure for reuse, and the redevelopment was wrapped in a vitrine-like unifying glass envelope. The glass envelope is neither neutral nor static. The structurally glazed panels present two layers of ceramic frit that modulate in response to interior activities and exterior views, and to minimize solar heat gain. A third internal layering of drapes references Hespeler’s historic textile manufacturing past with a custom hand-woven textile that filters the sunlight to wash the interior with soft natural light. The Library’s building skin is taut, trim and free of superfluous details.

Summary: Located on the northern edge of the University of Guelph’s campus, Lennox Addington Hall is a large student residence complex constructed in 1970. Typical of this era of large building projects, Lennox Addington Hall had limited thermal insulation, consumed an excessive amount of energy, and suffered structural damage due to interior water vapour and exterior water penetration. This re-skinning project, designed by Larkin Architect, uses soya-based polyurethane foam insulation, extruded terracotta ceramic tile and an open jointed rainscreen system. The project has set a precedent for the re-skinning of residential towers in Southern Ontario. Total energy savings exceeded 50 percent when compared to the existing building, and will remove 260 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually.

Summary:  The proposal of the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) to re-skin the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) tower aims to transform the identity of the brutalist-style high-rise and reduce its carbon footprint. LAVA has developed a simple, cost-effective and easily constructed building skin that forms a translucent cocoon to create a micro-climate. The skin can generate energy with embedded photo-voltaic cells, collect rain water, and improve the distribution of natural daylight. It can also use available convective energy to power the building’s ventilation requirements, reducing HVAC dependency. The skin could be applied to other similar existing structures inexpensively, contributing to a low-cost, efficient way to beautify cities everywhere.

Summary: When 100 Park first opened its doors in 1949, the 36-storey, 825,000 square foot office block was the first glass and steel tower on Park Avenue, New York. After nearly six decades, however, the building looked dated and its once state-of-the-art building systems were becoming obsolete. An ambitious capital improvement program included window replacement and a composite metal panel over-cladding of the north and south façades; installation of a high-performance unitized curtain wall over the existing Park Avenue façade; a new, two-storey lobby and associated HVAC systems; and roof repair and rehabilitation. The building remained fully occupied throughout the re-skinning process. The re-skinning resulted in a 29 percent energy savings per year.

Summary:Now House is a process for retrofitting existing older houses to become net zero energy homes. The retrofit includes renewing or upgrading foundation walls, basement floor, roof, exterior walls, windows, electrical systems, lighting, HVAC, ventilation and water heating. The first application of the Now House process was to a 60-year-old wartime house in Toronto, which is similar in layout and footprint to a million other houses in Canada where the process could be replicated. Already the Toronto house has acted as the prototype for the retrofitting of five similar houses in Windsor, Ontario, that are owned by a social housing agency. The original Now House re-skinning and retrofit resulted in energy savings of approximately 70 percent per year for the existing bungalow.

Summary: TWest Park Court is a prominent high-rise apartment building for low-income seniors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1979, it was originally clad with an exterior insulating and finish system known as EIFS or synthetic stucco. EIFS has proved problematic in the climate, and the EIFS on West Park Court began to show signs of failure within 10 years of construction. PWWG replaced the exterior envelope of West Park Court with a pressure equalized rainscreen, which is more durable, less challenging to maintain, and far more energy efficient. In a process that would be replicable elsewhere, the new envelope was installed almost entirely from the outside, with very little impact on the residents. By simply adding a new skin to the building the energy savings were 15 percent over the existing insulated building.

Summary: Sparkasse Vorderpfalz is a regional bank in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with its headquarters located on the most prominent square in the city centre. The project to refurbish the building’s façade and services had to be carried out without affecting the bank’s operations or damaging recent interior renovations. The re-skinning commenced in autumn 2006, with the improvement of the load-bearing structure and the removal of the original ventilated cladding. The base zone was remodelled and secondary glazing added to the tower, with retrofitting of the primary façade of the tower and the corners completed in July 2009. The refurbished building’s energy performance has improved by 64 percent. It has also been certified as a ‘Green Building’ by the German Energy Agency.

Summary: The redevelopment of the University of Ulster’s Belfast campus building to provide state-of-the-art facilities for 2,000 art and design students had to be undertaken without disrupting university activities. Todd Architects’ approach was to extend the existing 1960s concrete framed building upwards and outwards, providing space for the students to be vacated from the top two floors of the old building, and enabling a new roof and cladding to wrap over the existing building, which was subsequently dismantled from within. Environmental measures include using exposed concrete slabs as a heat store, installing heat and CO2 sensors in every room to ensure the right levels of fresh air and heating, and reclaiming heat at the top of the first atrium. The final energy benefit to the retrofitted building was 64 percent over the original building.

Summary: A decommissioned power plant on a five-acre site at the southern end of the Halifax downtown waterfront will become the headquarters of Nova Scotia Power. The project retains and adapts the original concrete-clad steel structure by re-skinning it in a tight building envelope to minimize energy loss. Existing piping from the Halifax harbour will carry sea water for cooling. The building will be the first major use of ‘chilled beam’ technology in Canada. Additional energy saving strategies include the provision of heat recovery from HVAC systems, daylight and occupancy sensors for lighting, and solar panels for water heating and supplementary building heating. The building is a LEED Platinum candidate. 

Summary: A unique example of Brutalist architecture from the 20th century, 222 Jarvis in Toronto is a nine-storey inverted pyramid structure built in 1971. Constructed in concrete, the lower floors have load-bearing perimeter walls that support the larger floors cantilevered above. Recognizing the structure’s strong bones and iconic status, the Ontario government purchased the building in 2007. Its refurbishment is the flagship project for sustainable reconstruction of downtown office buildings. The building envelope upgrade will add insulation to the existing R3 concrete walls and above the parking level ceiling to raise the building’s overall thermal performance. The finished building will achieve LEED Gold status and stop 4,930 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere each year.