I’ve always been attuned to HVAC– Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning— in architecture. the design of a building’s HVAC system can make or break its success, but it seems that too few architects pay much attention to it.
Very often you’ll walk into a place that blasts you with hot stale air as soon as you buzz through the door. Or you have the misfortune of having a desk beneath a vent pointed right at you. Or when the air kicks in the whole building shakes.
The Daley Center in Chicago has an HVAC system that practically defines it. Very subtly, it envelops the people inside with sounds and a distinctive smell.
The building, built in 1965 by C. F. Murphy Associates, is a classic glass & steel structure with a brownish/ black skin that has weathered nicely with time. The entire perimeter of the building has heating units that run along the glass. Every floor, every window, has a wide, inviting radiator along the edge.
This is perfect for the nervous clumps of plaintiffs and defendants who come to the building every day. People stand and sit in respectful distances from opponents, and the constant hum of the air conditioning makes for a built-in sound muffler.
It is so oddly comforting and womb-like in such a stressful place.