Location:
Greenbuild International Conference and Expo
Los Angeles, CA
Speaker:
Mike Fowler, Claire McConnell
Date & Time:
11.06.2025 | 1:15pm – 2:15pm
Over the past decade, we have witnessed an alarming rise in extreme heat, wildfires, wildfire smoke, drought, and floods, often labeled as “unprecedented.” As extreme heat events continue to increase in frequency, intensity, and severity, the threat escalates for significant risk to human health, especially in disadvantaged communities. Schools and multifamily housing are particularly vulnerable to overheating, leading to adverse effects on well-being, educational outcomes, and health equity.
Join Mithun associate principal Mike Fowler and associate Claire McConnell for “Don’t Sweat It: Designing for Extreme Heat and Resilience,” a presentation that will share integrated design and building enclosure strategies aimed at mitigating these challenges by reducing peak cooling demand, enhancing passive survivability and improving climate resilience. Aligned with the LEED v5 EA credit to Reduce Peak Thermal Loads and the Passive House standard, attendees will learn the health risks from wildfire smoke and effective measures to protect occupant health. Case studies in hot/dry and warm/humid climates will demonstrate how advanced building enclosure design and thermal comfort modeling – using weather files with the exact conditions of past extreme heat events along with the use of projected future forecasted weather files – can improve safety and comfort during power failures, wildfire smoke exposure and extreme heat events, even when faced with all three challenges simultaneously. Featured case studies include The Bush School Upper School, Princeton University Meadows Apartments, Georgia Tech Curran Street Residence Hall and EPA CCERTA: Missoula Public Health.
Mike and Claire’s co-presenters include Missoula Public Health air quality specialist Kerri Mueller and University of Washington Integrated Design Lab research engineer Teresa Moroseos.
Date Posted: 11.06.2025
