Annual Report
2023-2024
Dear Friends and Supporters of the UW IDL,
Each year as we share our annual report, we take the opportunity to reflect on our progress over the past several years. A highlight has been the ongoing diversification of our research and areas of technical expertise. Through collaboration with our colleagues within the University, external organizations, our partner firms, and our funders we have expanded the lab’s horizons and impact.
Building upon a decade of healthcare efficiency innovation, the IDL authored the ASHRAE/ASHE Guide to Decarbonizing Hospital Buildings. Through a partnership with the Urban Land Institute and Kohn Pederson Fox Architects (KPF), the IDL and Associate Professor Tomas Mendez Echenagucia developed new approaches for evaluating carbon for facades in new contexts. In partnership with Professor Kate Simonen and the UW Lifecycle Lab, we have contributed to new open-source parametric life cycle assessment (POD LCA) methods for buildings and products. We have established new relationships with South Seattle College and Northwest Indian College to help train the next generation of building energy assessors and operators. We have joined with new UW faculty member, Narjes Abbasabadi, on a Population Health Initiative seed grant to use digital twins for building retrofits and healthy indoor air. These projects and collaborations offer us exciting new areas of impact, while continuing our core work in energy efficiency with our long-time partners.
We have opened a new chapter in the life of IDL with our move to the Roosevelt Commons building in the University District, closer to our home bases of Architecture and Gould Hall (and next to the U-District Light Rail Station if you want to visit us!). We retain our long-term commitment to the Bullitt Center, continuing to operate the tour program and to learn from the building’s exceptional performance. We also celebrate Heather Burpee’s promotion to full Research Professor within the Department of Architecture – the highest rank in the professoriate.
As always, we would like to take a moment to thank the organizations that make our work possible including the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), BetterBricks, our Puget Sound regional utility partners, The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Engineers (ASHRAE), the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNA), the AEC teams that bring us into their process, and our Advisory Board, which is helping us expand beyond our traditional boundaries. We look forward to a bright future of expanded collaboration, innovation, and an ever-better built environment for our region.
– Christopher Meek and Heather Burpee
Read more in our 2023-2024 Annual Report