Mueller Associates Teams with Ayers Saint Gross to Design Landmark Building

Baltimore, MD—January 2, 2014

The Baltimore-based design team of Mueller Associates and Ayers Saint Gross, teamed with the German firm Behnisch Architekten, earned national acclaim recently in Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine’s “Best of the Best” awards for architecture, engineering, and construction. The project team, which also includes Baltimore-based contractor Whiting-Turner, was recognized for its work on the new John and Frances Angelos Law School at the University of Baltimore, a new campus landmark for one of the largest public law schools in the nation.

The building won Best Project in Higher Education for the Mid-Atlantic Region, Best Overall Project for the Mid-Atlantic Region, and Best Project Nationwide in Higher Education.

The 12-story, 192,000-square-foot tower is organized as three interlocking volumes shaped around a soaring, full-height atrium. Located adjacent to the Jones Branch Expressway and near Penn Station, the building serves as a highly visible gateway to the campus and as an iconic structure within the Mt. Vernon community of central Baltimore. Designed to foster collaboration, the center includes state-of-the-art classrooms and lecture halls. The skylit atrium is used as a gathering space and an active circulation hub. A moot courtroom extends from the main lobby to a lower garden level and an administrative wing includes accessible law clinics for the public.

Set to become the first LEED^®-Platinum certified law school in the country, the building’s sustainable measures reflect new green building standards for Baltimore and higher education facilities nationwide. Mueller Associates provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering for the project, incorporating innovative systems and working closely with the architectural team to integrate the engineering with the architecture. The building is designed to reduce energy consumption by 43 percent and water use by 56 percent from baseline standards.

Highlights include thermo-active slabs with radiant heating and cooling throughout and natural ventilation with operable windows. An automatic ventilation system controls windows in common spaces depending on the outdoor ambient temperature and relative humidity, and signals that windows can be opened in private offices for individual control. Five exhaust fans at the top of the glass-enclosed atrium also supplement the tower’s ventilation.

The building also features a state-of-the-art window shade control system, with rooftop wind and solar sensors that direct operable shades to open and close automatically, with individual controls in the offices. The shades, positioned between the facade curtainwall and exterior rain screen system, minimize solar heat gain and reflect natural daylight into the building. The system is also linked to the AV technology in the building, to adjust daylight as needed for presentations

Mueller Associates also designed an energy-efficient mechanical system for the building, including:

• Two high-efficiency chillers; 600 tons total
• High-efficiency condensing boilers
• Dedicated outdoor air system with heat recovery wheel and passive desiccant wheel
• Energy recovery wheel
• Water-conserving fixtures
• Rainwater harvesting

Read more about the University of Baltimore Law School here.

About Mueller Associates

Established in 1966, Mueller Associates provides mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services for facilities throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The firm specializes in engineering for academic buildings, museums, performing arts centers, healthcare settings, and other institutional and corporate facilities requiring stringent environmental control, energy-conserving, and sustainable designs

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