U.S. General Services Administration
KEY FINDINGS
- In summer, FCS participants, who had an increased circadian stimulus, had more sleep disturbances but were in better moods and rated their sleep quality higher
Daylight Research at Federal Center South Building 1202
Federal Center South (FCS) Building 1202 opened in 2012. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District. The building is approximately 209,000 square feet, 3 stories tall and houses several hundred federal workers. Its curved shape is representative of the original course of the adjacent Duwamish waterway, which is reflective of one of the agency’s core missions of managing the nation’s waterways. The building’s design incorporates natural daylighting through a large rectangular skylight over the atrium core, which houses many of the collaborative meeting spaces as well as natural interior landscaping. Building occupants have assigned seats and spend time working in the building as well as conducting field work.
Lighting at Federal Center South Building 1202
- Ceiling lighting fixtures - Linear pendant luminaires are mounted on 22’ centers
- Type of lamps - Single T5 linear fluorescent lamp in each luminaire
- Desktop lamps - Each workstation has an adjustable light emitting diode (LED) light
- Daylight harvesting system - There is a daylight harvesting system that includes battery-powered wireless photosensors and dimming ballasts in linear fluorescent luminaires
- Skylights - There is a large rectangular skylight in the middle of the building above the third floor offices that lets light fall onto the atrium core and adjacent workspaces. The skylight windows are tinted.
- Window features - Perimeter windows contain bands of tinted glass (44% visible transmittance, 0.25 solar heat gain coefficient)
- Shade type - Exterior of building designed with horizontal light shelves and vertical baffles for shading. Additional shading of perimeter windows provided by manually-operated venetian blinds
- Furniture system - There are assigned workspaces with medium-level partitions and gray finishes. Storage shelves are located on one side of the workspace with LED lighting underneath. The linear pendant luminaires are placed overtop of the storage shelves, preventing some light to penetrate deeply into the workspace.
Technical Reports
- Photometric Measurement Report - FCS Building 1202 [PDF]
- Measuring Circadian Light and Health and Wellbeing Outcomes - FCS Building 1202 [PDF]