Vesterheim Commons Norwegian-American Museum recognized for energy-efficient design

In late September, we at Alliant Energy recognized the Vesterheim Commons Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, as a recipient of the 2024 Excellence in Energy-Efficient Design Awards for outstanding efforts to reduce energy use.

Judges select recipients from projects whose designers participated in the Commercial New Construction program (CNC) we and our partner MidAmerican Energy Company offer. The program provides energy design assistance and energy efficiency incentives to commercial customers for new construction, additions and renovation projects in areas our two utility companies serve.

Snøhetta and BNIM Architects and Morrissey Engineering Inc. designed the museum. It achieves 37% annual energy savings compared to the CNC program baseline. The Vesterheim Commons is an addition to the existing Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum designed to be the new entrance to the campus. Vesterheim Commons is an infill building within the museum campus that spans an entire city block and fronts the main commercial street.

The building utilizes a dedicated outside air system (DOAS) with an internal energy recovery system to provide ventilation air for the building. The unit is all-electric, including the heating, which makes use of the renewable energy available in Iowa. The DOAS is coupled with a heat recovery variable refrigerant volume (VRV) system that provides all the heating and cooling for individual spaces in the building. This system can recover heat from one section of the building and reuse it in other parts of the building.

The building uses daylight wherever possible to reduce electric lighting consumption. The large south-facing canopy allows for maximum visibility at street level while controlling glare and summer heat gain. Elsewhere, judicious glazing protects the collection from direct sunlight and maximizes building envelope performance, and provides curated views to the outdoors. Controls dim electric lighting when natural light is available. 

We presented the award at the 2024 American Institute of Architects Iowa Annual Convention.

We’re proud to partner with Willdan and MidAmerican Energy for the Commercial New Construction program. Our partners and we are grateful to the American Institute of Architects for continuing to recognize and celebrate energy efficiency.