Exelon Pavilions

The City of Chicago in association with the Exelon Corporation appointed HBRA to design a pair of pavilions in Millennium Park to showcase their cooperative venture of promoting renewable energy resources within Chicago. The expression of each Pavilion is of a minimalistic black glass cube flanking the equally abstract entry pavilion of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The Pavilions were not designed to merely attach the photovoltaics to the roof as is the usual application, but rather they were designed to integrate the photovoltaic cells into the building itself. The exterior cladding of the Pavilions is made up of photovoltaic panels glazed into a curtain-wall system. This is one of the largest “building integrated” photovoltaic projects ever attempted in the United States.