NOAA’s New Environmental Prediction Center
7 10 2008They are definitely going to have to come up with a nickname for this building! Pictured below is a rendering of the National Weather Service’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Center for Environmental Prediction.
The center is part of the planned 130 acre University of Maryland M-Square research park in College Park. The facility is already under construction and once complete will serve as the headquarters for NOAA’s climate prediction center. NOAA uses complex model analysis and forecasting to issue weather warning throughout the world.
We have to admit that we love the way this building looks, especially considering it is a government building. This is probably because they worked closely with Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) who have a pretty good track record of designing unique buildings. It has a really interesting flow and those green roofs are going to look great.
I love the design and green elements of this building, but is this a false green?
(I realize the post didn’t state that this was a LEED building, but I don’t think I’d be wrong in assuming that it is.)
Given that this requires a complete new construction and will be in the suburbs (read: lack of density, greater car dependency) won’t this building cause more enviro-harm than good?
Why couldn’t NOAA repurpose a building inside District boundaries?
If there’s a technical, legitimate need for a completely new structure that’s rather removed, then I’ll desist. I just think we’re often too quick to praise.
Well there is something to be said for the synergies of being near a university and I don’t think you would be able to find a large enough space inside a prebuilt building inside the District either. I do think that this is right by a metro station though and those are green roofs for sure in the rendering. I guess what I am saying is I like this development, it looks good and is in a good location.
I have to agree with Wills. If this is near other buildings in a walkable area, why does the drawing show absolutely nothing else around, and no way to get in and out except in a very auto-centric driveway loop? It looks like this architect never considered the possibility of doing anything other than driving to this building.
I work in the building that sits opposite a parking lot (not shown in the drawing!) from the NOAA building. It’ll be about a 20-minute walk from the College Park Metro. They need to build a pedestrian path from River Road to the NOAA building, which I have not seen being developed, if they want anyone to use Metro. There’s a shuttle bus that currently runs to my building and two other buildings, but I don’t know if NOAA is going to pony up the dough to be on the shuttle bus route as well.
It’s really a waste of at least marginally accessible space, and ironic that the Environmental Prediction Center greatly privileges the emission of carbon as the best way to approach it.
You’re right. It does need a nickname. The Sensuous Thunderbolt.
[…] Environmental Prediction not being transit friendly were well founded. The one thing left out of the rendering we showed you a while back is the huge parking lot pictured below. The actual building is coming along nicely though, […]
[…] article plays up the green angle of HOK and their newest building now under construction, the NOAA Center for Climate and Weather Prediction, which you know how we feel […]
I am the project architect for this building, and have been working on it for the past 4 years.
To respond to a few of the comments:
- it is not a false green; it will be rated LEED silver
- it is within 1/2 mile of the metro, and we have provided a continuous pedestrian path from the metro to the site (including a nature trail through the woods to the north). We also provide bike racks, showers & locker rooms for those who wish to bike to work; preferred parking for hybrid vehicles and carpool vehicles.
- NOAA wanted this site, since they will work together with scientists from the University of Maryland
- entire 10-acre site is for pedestrians, not the vehicle. Cars are mostly limited to the garage at the site’s entrance