Easton Collection Center, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

The Museum of Northern Arizona was founded in 1928, by Harold Colton and his wife, for preserving native culture of Arizona and exhibiting more than five million artifacts. On the initiative of the museum’s director, Robert Breunig, was decided to create a specially designed building - Easton Collection Center for storing and preserving collections not exhibited in the museum. The Center named in honor of the facility’s donors, Betsy and Harry Easton. The architect of the Center is Jim Roberts, principal of Roberts/Jones Associates, Inc.. The general contractor was Kinney Construction Services. The owner of the LEED Platinum-certified building is the Museum of Northern Arizona. As it was necessary to provide the building with adequate systems of temperature and humidity, the designers decided to renovate the building, by installing an in-floor heating system and interior plaster walls, absorbing humidity. The photovoltaic array consisting of 75 panels cuts down energy use by 20-25 % annually. The building has a green living roof with native plants. Rainwater is also collected in a 20.000-gallon cistern installed on the roof. The system of passive solar heating is used in winter. Gross floor area is 1579 square meters (or 17000 sq feet). The architect deliberately chose the site for the future building near other historical buildings. The form of the façade makes it possible to provide the building with daylight all the time.

By Astghik Atabekyan, www.building.am