Steven Strong and Luke McKneally of Solar Design Associates spoke at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) show in San Francisco this week about moving, “toward carbon neutral green design with renewable energy.” Strong is a solar zealot and a pioneer in installing solar heating and power on homes and buildings as well as making these structures more energy efficient.
He began his career as an engineer working on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline from 1973 to 1974, which he likened to being, “like a kid in a candy store for a young engineer.” But sobered by the oil scares precipitated by the Yom Kippur War, he went back to architecture school and started his solar design firm.
He has an absolutely impressive portfolio of solar installations to his credit. Here is a quick tour of some of his work.
The Mountain Conservation Center in Northern New Hampshire 
In a solar starved environment of 8,765 Degree Days (that’s not good) – Strong helped design a 7,000 square foot carbon neutral facility, powered exclusively by solar with back up provided by a dead fall-fueled wood boiler. The building is optimized for winter production and also uses solar thermal. At the end of the year they are negative 490 kWh – in other words, “The utility pays them.” Strong adds, “If this can be accomplished in Northern New England – it can be done most anywhere.”
The Lewis Environmental Center at Oberlin College
A net zero energy building built in partnership with William McDonough + Partners. The environmental studies building includes an organic water purifying system, a solar cell roof, and passive solar heating.
The Carlisle House 
Strong’s firm helped build the first solar residence connected to the grid – the Carlisle House in 1980. Strong admits that “the house looks like a large solar array behind which a living space has been organized.” Realize that this was done with solar panels with a conversion efficiency of 7 percent. The building has super-insulated walls and ceilings.
Tiger Woods Learning Center, Anaheim Calif.
Incorporating thin-film curtain wall with varied transparency -- the structure is sloped and curved requiring BIPV modules of differing size and shape.
Discovery Center, Santa Ana, Calif. 
Built in partnership with extreme architects, Arquitectonica, the entire South face of this big cube is thin film photovoltaics. The installation crew was committed to the project and they did not miss a single electrical connection.
The Solaire, Battery Park City, NYC
And despite his solar zealotry, Strong insists that, “The building needs to be worthy of a solar investment.” The dessert part is solar. It’s hard to see designers getting excited about enhanced insulation levels or variable speed motor drives, low emissivity coatings on glazings. They can’t see these things and architects get very little direct credit for that. But they can see solar.”
(The above picture is of a multi-family dwelling BIPV.)
Strong’s website shows many more of his award winning and trail-blazing installations.
I’ll leave you with a few more of his thoughts…
“Why aren’t we building PV arrays on freeway sound barriers? They are near the urban core, they have good foundations, the grid crosses the highway, and it’s is a very good use of land.”
“Solar should be the last resort. Why do architects want to go straight to the dessert? There are hundreds of other strategies to make buildings perform.”
"The success formula for zero energy buildings is efficiency + efficiency + more efficiency + conservation and then adding renewables."
