Morphosis
NOAA Satellite Operations Facility
Suitland, Maryland
Photo Maxwell McKenzie
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."
Rachel Carson / The Sense of Wonder (1956)
Photo Maxwell McKenzie
In light of NOAA's mission to monitor and safeguard the earth, the architects reexamined the traditional relationship between building and landscape - figure and ground.
A reflection of the Satellite Operations Facility’s environmental mandate, the design scheme prioritizes open space, reduces the presence of built form, and integrates architecture with landscape.
Photo Nic Lehoux
A field of antennae - the “eyes and ears” of the operation - crowns the three-story bar building, pitching and sweeping to receive information (visible data, radiance, sea surface, snow and ice cover, and moisture content of the atmosphere) from the sixteen satellites it monitors.
Photo Nic Lehoux
The iconic antennae comprise the dominant visual register of the project. The departments that operate as “the brain” of the operation; mission control, launch control, and computer processing are housed in the slender bar.
Photo Nic Lehoux
Beneath the bar, lies the “body,” a disc-shaped building that slips into the thickened landscape of lifted ground. This partially submerged, double-high space accommodates offices and support services.
Photo Roland Halbe
Long swaths of interior walls are wrapped in imagery of the earth taken by NOAA’s satellites while the convex ceiling plane simulates the planet's curvature as seen from space.
Photo: Roland Halbe
Photo Maxwell McKenzie
Slots in the traversable, undulating green roofscape admit natural light and create niches for large courtyards. A glass lobby, with a security control point, mediates between the two main architectural components of body and brain.
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Site Plan
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level 1
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan level 2
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level 3
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level 4
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level 5
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Section
Site area: 870,000 square feet
Project size: 208,000 square feet
Completed: 2006
Client: General Services Administration
Architects: Morphosis
Morphosis new website
Project Architect: David Rindlaub
Project Manager: Paul Gonzales
Project Designer: Jean Oei
Project Team:
Edgar Hatcher
Salvador Hidalgo
Ted Kane
Maia Johnson
Chris Warren
Project Assistants:
Caroline Barat
Alasdair Dixon
Haseb Faqirzada
Carlos Gomez
Dwoyne Keith
Laura McAlpine
Gerardo Mingo
Nadine Quirmbach
Michaela Schippl
Natalia Traverso
Joint Venture: Einhorn Yaffee Prescott
Partner: Ed Kohlberg
Principal in Charge: Bill Lavine, Doug Gehley
Project Manager: Randy Wong
Mechanical Engineer: Lew Brode, Brian Carroll
Contractor: P.J. Dick
Civil Engineer: A. Morton Thomas & Associates
Structural Engineer: Cagley & Associates
Electrical Engineer: Einhorn Yaffee Prescott
Mechanical Engineer: Einhorn Yaffee Prescott
Landscape Designer: EDAW, Walt Cole, Jon Pearson
Morphosis arcspace features
June 1, 2009