College of the Desert

After the summer break – which we used to prepare the coming release of ENVI-met V 5 at Oct, 18 – we continue publishing not only examples of our own work, but also interesting projects or case studies using the ENVI-met microclimate model.

Ian McRae from Sherwood Design Engineers supported the development of the College of the Desert Master plan by developing sustainability and infrastructure benchmarks and goals to guide architecture and landscape design efforts for a future community college campus in Palm Springs, California.

The primary scope of the project was the development of sustainable water infrastructure, but there was also a great opportunity for urban microclimate modeling due to the extreme summer temperatures.

A microclimate analysis was conducted for the proposed campus, under average summer conditions, in order to quantify the site performance. This was helpful in highlighting priority areas that would need additional design considerations to promote pedestrian comfort during the summer.

The #envimet model revealed that the southernmost parking lot and transit station had significantly higher mean radiant temperature values than other portions of the campus, due to the wide adjacent roadway, expansive parking lot immediately across the street, and limited amount of tree canopy coverage in the area.
#software #microclimate #architecture

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