The Transformation of Architecture and Energy in the 1970s: Fred S. Dubin and the Norris Cotton Building Available to Purchase

The historiography of modern architecture has largely overlooked the increasingly important collaborative role of mechanical engineers in the making of major buildings that hold a place in the evolution of the modernist tradition. Mechanical engineer Fred Dubin (1914–92) was an advocate both of rethinking the design process around energy use and of closely integrating mechanical issues with spatial, structural, and formal solutions to make the first generation of energy-efficient buildings in the 1970s. Among the most ambitious of these was Isaak and Isaak’s Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester, New Hampshire (1972–76), one of the first multistory office buildings designed to conserve and monitor energy use. The design, developed for the General Services Administration, carefully integrated the information gathered through computer modeling and monitoring of energy consumption, including analysis of the building envelope; solar heat gain; heating, ventilation, and cooling systems; natural and artificial lighting; and solar energy.