Staying cool in the Coor Building
As I sit in the new Coor Computing Commons, I am disturbed by Tuesday's article on this great new building.
To call the building a "disaster" and to imply that it should not have been built in the desert is, I think, wildly off the mark. Clearly, the amount of interior space that is directly exposed to the sun during the hottest part of the day is not nearly so expansive as it appears from the outside. As I observed the upper floors during the late afternoon, sunlight seemed to be gradually filtered through to the core of the building. The effect was hardly that of a "glass box" as implied by the article.
After wandering through several floors of the new building yesterday and today, I think this is exactly the kind of building ASU needs. The new Coor building is easily the best structure on campus. It has a very crisp, urban feel to it, and I think it will be a great space to learn in. The classrooms I sat in are quite comfortable, and the generous hallways put the MU to shame.
If I had one complaint, it would be the bare light bulbs on the exterior stairs. Flying in to Sky Harbor at night, those stairwells had to be the most brightly lit spaces in Tempe. For $58.7 million, they could at least put some shades around the outside.
-Jason Comer
Junior, Architecture
