Email #2 – HVAC circa 1909

What goes around, comes around.

Here are two recent pictures inside Architecture Hall during the interior demolition. The top photo shows open grated transoms above the windows on the east wall in the North Wing (old studio Rm. 217). Although still visible from the outside, these transoms had been completely covered up on the inside during the subsequent renovations of the building.

Now they are all opened up again. In the new building they will function like they did in 1909, providing natural ventilation. (Not. See #77 and #78).

The bottom photo titled "Hidden Chimneys" was taken on the first floor looking SE from the old studio Rm. 124 towards the old CM office. According to Dean Heerwagen, the three vertical columns of hollow tiles at center helped ventilate the rooms by allowing air to escape upwards through the walls and out the roof. This system was no longer in use in 2006, having been plugged up long ago in one of the earlier renovations.

In the new building, Dean says similar hidden chimneys – aka “breather walls”  - will be installed to provide the same type of natural ventilation.

What goes around, comes around...

John Stamets
July 1, 2006

See also #2, #18, #19 and #65