The Energy Sciences Building (ESB) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory received a 2016 Green GOOD DESIGN™ Award from the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Green GOOD DESIGN’s goal is to bestow international recognition to those outstanding individuals, companies, organizations, governments and institutions — together with their products, services, programs, ideas and concepts — that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a healthier and more sustainable world.
This is the latest award for the ESB, a building that has garnered numerous accolades, including a U.S. Department of Energy Secretary’s Achievement Award for project management, a Chicago Building Congress Merit Award and LEED Gold rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The ESB is part of the ArgonneNEXT initiative. To meet the laboratory’s current and emerging scientific mission needs, a major building and renovation program is creating modern, state-of-the art research spaces with a visual continuity across the site. These upgrades support an interdisciplinary and sustainable campus
The ESB’s design ushers in a change to a pedestrian-focused campus with new walking paths that connect nearby buildings to form an energy sciences quadrangle on the campus.
In addition to transforming the campus, the building is designed to change the way people work, moving from a departmental structure to a free-address system that is project- and tool-based. Throughout the design process, the building design team held open meetings and workshops for any scientists and staff members interested in attending, fostering connections even before the building was completed. The participatory, transparent approach helped to change the direction from a government work culture to a more open, industry-competitive way of working.