Roosevelt School in Elkhart, IN is a project that stands out to me in my career as some unique challenges gave way to a beautiful structure outcome. During design, the library & media center evolved into a two-story tall space, with reading spaces located on the second-floor mezzanine. The school district wanted as much natural light within space as possible, so we were looking for creative solutions to make this possible. This presented the opportunity to provide a 150’ x 150’ Kalwall pyramid skylight which flooded the entire library with natural light. The concern was raised about the amount of heat loss the skylight might have, which impacts the yearly cost over time to the client. Kalwall has a product, called Nanogel, which is a light transmitting aerogel that inhibits heat transfer and fills in between the Kalwall panels. The Mechanical engineers ran a cost savings on the usage of Nanogel versus no Nanogel and the results were the district could recoup the cost of the Nanogel in 3-4 years. This 150’ x 150’ Kalwall pyramid skylight was the largest skylight the company had ever produced and the largest use of Nanogel product.

 

Having the opportunity to work with a new product and create something with this scale made the project unique, and the creation of wonderful diffused natural light for the library/media center for elementary school students to use long into the future was a standout for me.