Mogavero Architects

Urban League of Sacramento

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Our firm provided architecture and development management services for The Greater Sacramento Urban League. The shape of the Urban League building expresses the many sustainable design techniques used throughout the structure and illustrates a comprehensive approach to sustainable architecture.

Incorporating classrooms, offices, an auditorium, child care facility and support services, the Urban League facility is energy efficient as well as humanistic.

Incorporating classrooms, offices, an auditorium, child care facility and support services, the Urban League facility is energy efficient as well as humanistic. The Urban League was willing to forgo a traditional, mechanically conditioned space for long-term energy and economic savings. The building was designed to take advantage of a mild year-round climate and features spaces that transition smoothly between indoors and outdoors.

Programmatically, the atrium volume forms a sheltered entry spine and an opportunity to organize vertical and horizontal circulation through the entry, lobby and gathering spaces. The temperate lobby space is designed to release warm summer air and keep out cooler winter air. Critical to this design is the open geometry at the intersection of the roof and walls. The atrium fabric and glass roof was designed to provide venturi and gravity effects to enhance summer ventilation. Through the use of large openings at the east and west walls at street level, air flow is allowed through the space.

Daylight harvesting was woven into the program, providing light to virtually every space in the building. A photovoltaic power generation system cut lighting costs even further. A radiant hydronic heating system provides additional comfort during winter months.

Community goals incorporated into the design of the facility include: pedestrian connections to the site and neighborhood; reduced energy and maintenance costs and formal and informal spaces serving the neighborhood.