In Ames, Iowa, students who stuck around Iowa State University (ISU) for the summer often found the university’s massive 236,000-square-foot Lied Recreation Athletic Center uninhabitable. On those sweltering summer days, the temperature inside the massive brick facility would escalate into triple digits, with no air conditioning or effective ventilation to offset the stifling heat.
For part of the summer, the facility was not only useless — it was dangerous. Clearly, something needed to be done to cool the facility, but installing air conditioning was not an option. Luckily, there was a plan B.