The Linde Center
![Caltech Linde + Robinson Laboratory for Global Environmental Sciences](https://www.argcreate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cWakely1211305.jpg)
The Linde Center is a poster child for the sustainable adaptation of unique buildings for new uses. As befits a Center for Environmental Sciences, the Lab is the first historic laboratory building to be certified LEED Platinum. ARG’s innovative approach and technical solutions successfully marry an elegant historic building with a cutting-edge research facility. After its first life in the 20th century exploring outer space, the building is now in its second life of scientific discovery exploring our own planet.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Designed in 1932 by the Goodhue Brothers, the Center’s exterior features a large bas-relief of the sun; the interior ceilings are elaborately painted with astronomical and zodiac symbols.
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For decades, the building hosted Caltech’s astronomers and astrophysicists; here the 200-inch telescope on Mount Palomar was designed and tested.
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On completion, the Linde Center was the lowest energy use laboratory in the United States.
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The building’s original sun-telescope (coelostat) still tracks the sun and sends daylight deep into the basement lab spaces.
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The telescope’s 55-foot deep pit now holds 58,000 gallons of water to serve the cooling system, providing compressor-free cooling most of the year.
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![](https://www.argcreate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cWakely1211321.jpg)
Photography by David Wakely