The success of transformative programs currently under development at NASA, such as the Artemis mission to establish a long-term human presence on the moon and the Advanced Air Mobility project to integrate electric air taxis and drones into America’s airspace, will depend on breakthroughs in the technology of communication. To support the necessary innovations, NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland, has brought together 25 research labs from across its campus in a dedicated state-of-the-art Aerospace Communications Facility. Designed by Ross Barney Architects and completed in late 2023, the 54,000-square-foot, $40.5 million building integrates stringent programmatic and budgetary requirements with the desire for supportive daylit workspaces and the need to meet ambitious sustainability targets.
The architectural concept and its expression are unabashedly pragmatic, says Carol Ross Barney, founder of Ross Barney Architects. “This is a building that’s driven by its function and by the need to be carbon- and energy-efficient,” she says of the net zero energy–ready facility—one designed to be highly efficient, so that if a renewable-power generation system were installed, it would produce at least as much energy as is consumed. “We’ve used what the building has to do to make it beautiful,” she adds.
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