Glenstone Museum

SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING, BUILDING PERFORMANCE STRATEGY

Glenstone museum in Potomac Maryland has a clear and powerful mission: Glenstone is a place that seamlessly integrates art, architecture, and nature into a serene and contemplative environment.

Glenstone selected Thomas Phifer to build out the full architectural vision for Glenstone started by Gwathmey Siegel, which designed The Gallery and residences on the Glenstone site.  In close collaboration with Thomas Phifer, PWP Landscape Architecture and the Altieri engineering team, while at Buro Happold, Steven led the sustainable infrastructure and building performance aspects of the masterplan and building design phases for Glenstone. 

This planning effort centered around exploring various site centralization options.  Specifically, central chilled water plant, thermal storage and ground-coupling options were explored.  In addition, several site-level water collection and reuse options were analyzed, as well as the ideas of decentralized grey or black-water treatment in lieu of a connection to city-infrastructure.    Key to these solutions was the understanding of building scale performance and operational criteria for museum environments.  

.Location: Potomac, MD

Client: Glenstone Date: 2016