Woods Hole Research Center

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Woods Hole, MA

2004 First Place, Northeast Green Building Award “Places of Work: Small Buildings” – Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
2004 Top Ten Green Buildings – American Institute of Architects
2004 Honorable Mention Excellence in Design Award – Environmental Design and Construction Magazine

2rw engineers provided analysis and design of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems at the new Wood’s Hole Research Center. The center is a combination of new construction and an extensive renovation of an existing wood frame tourist home built in the early 1900s.

In keeping with the organization’s mission of promoting improvement and care of the environment, the Woods Hole Research Center established two major design goals for the building, which 2rw and William McDonough + Partners worked to achieve:

1. The facility should be able to produce more energy than it consumes each year.
2. No fossil fuels would be used on site to provide energy.

  • 17,000 sq ft
  • 40 offices, 100 seat conference center
  • Three-station wet lab
  • On-site electricity generation via photovoltaic systems
  • Open loop, extraction well ground source heat pump system
  • Variable speed pumping
  • Energy recovery units
  • Active solar domestic hot water
  • Dedicated outdoor air system
  • High efficiency lighting with occupancy sensor control
  • Based on computer simulations conducted by 2rw, the building was estimated to use only 19.2% of the amount of energy that would be consumed by an equivalent structure that met the minimum Massachusetts Energy Conservation Code Building performance
  • Woods Hole Building Performance