Maier Hall
Maier Hall is a multidisciplinary center for arts, humanities, and instructional support programs located at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington. The building provides state-of-the-art instructional space for Math, English, Music and Fine Arts. It houses the College’s Learning Center and a 135-seat recital hall. Designed to create a place for students and faculty to engage in the College’s academic community, the facility serves the College’s mission of becoming a regional center for continuing and higher education.
Woven inbetween first growth trees and wetlands, the building connects the community spaces on campus to the natural environment and situates its occupants in a powerful relationship to the surrounding ecosystem. The building serves as an edge to the campus and as a gateway to the nature beyond. An open-air breezeway allows students to pass through the building from the campus to a virgin forest and leads them to a viewing platform at the wetland edge.
The building is designed for sustainability. All new plantings are native species requiring no permanent irrigation system. Rainwater is collected and directed to the wetland. An epiphytic roof of native mosses reduces heat island effect, while exterior sun screens reduce glare and unwanted solar heat gain. Heating is provided by geothermal well fields and ground-source heat pumps.
The project is designed to meet or exceed the 2011 target of the Architecture 2030 Building Challenge for reducing energy use intensities and dependence on fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. It anticipates a LEED Gold certification.
