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2012 PRESERVATION AWARDS Linde + Robinson Laboratory at Caltech
Owner: California Institute of Technology
Built in 1932, the Henry M. Robinson Laboratory of Astrophysics at Caltech was designed by the firm of Mayers Murray & Phillip (formerly Goodhue Associates). They collaborated with Russell W. Porter, noted designer of telescopes and observatories in the early twentieth century. An elegant, monumental structure, the laboratory building uniquely blends elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival style with celestial and solar motifs, down to original light fixtures depicting starbursts and signs of the zodiac. It beautifully conveys its original function, with fine decorative details and stencil decoration by renowned artisans A. T. Heinsbergen and Company.
The laboratory housed Caltech’s astronomers and astrophysicists for nearly eighty years. Among countless achievements made here, Caltech co-founder and renowned astrophysicist George Ellery Hale led the construction of the 200-inch telescope on Mount Palomar. With a long track record of innovation, Caltech embarked on a project in 2008 to transform the laboratory building to house the new Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, devoted to developing solutions to the world’s complex environmental problems. Using the building itself as a case study, the project team worked closely with users to design the most energy-efficient, highly advanced laboratory possible. The result is the first-ever LEED Platinum-certified renovation of a historic lab building.
From the beginning, the project team set out to provide an extremely modern, functional setting for the Center’s work while maintaining the building’s rich historic character. They fully restored the exterior, preserved significant spaces on the first two floors, and refurbished details such as cork flooring, custom light fixtures, fine woodwork, and stenciled decoration. The massive project not only preserved the building’s unique historic features, it found brilliant new uses for them—particularly the solar telescope, built as the centerpiece of the original building but functionally obsolete. Now it tracks the sun and uses the light it captures for both illumination and exploration.
Mirrors send the sunlight down an original eight-foot-wide shaft all the way through the building, seventy feet below the telescope dome on the roof. The light illuminates workspaces below ground and serves as test subject for scientific analysis. Some of it is even redirected onto a translucent glass window in the first-floor library, creating a real-time image of the sun. What’s more, a former experimental area in a shaft deep underground now stores water for the building’s radiant heating and cooling system. The project offers many more examples of this combination of technical advances and respect for the past. Caltech’s leadership in preservation, technology, and sustainability is fitting, given its mission. The institute invested in the best people and approaches, resulting in a project that inspires on many levels. It’s also just incredibly cool. Learn More
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Palace Theatre Built in 1911 as the third home of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit in Los Angeles, this theatre at Sixth St. and Broadway, a work of architect G. Albert Lansburgh, is now the oldest remaining original Orpheum theatre in the country. Loosely styled after a Florentine Renaissance palazzo, the facade of this brick and concrete structure features terra cotta flowers, fairies, and theatrical masks illustrating the spirit of entertainment. Photo courtesy of Tom Zimmerman |
