Corey Griffin

Assistant Professor

Master of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 2005
Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials) University of California, Berkeley, 2005
Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Architectural Engineering), Stanford University, 2000

Contact: cgriffin@pdx.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Current Classes
Arch 410/510 Architectural Leadership

Biography

Corey Griffin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Portland State University, teaching design, structures and building technology courses. He teaches upper division undergraduate and graduate courses focused on the integration of architectural design with structural, mechanical and enclosure systems as well as a graduate level course on building science research methods. His research focuses on the intersections of structural systems and green buildings with an emphasis on integrated design, multi-performance structures and building longevity.

Before joining the faculty at Portland State University, Professor Griffin taught at the University of Oregon and Montana State University in Bozeman. At the University of Oregon, he transformed the structures curriculum with Associate Professor Christine Theodoropoulos to emphasize the structural decisions architects make that can reduce the environmental impact of a building with an emphasis on structural efficiency, life cycle analysis of structural materials, and adaptive reuse. At Place Architecture in Bozeman, he was a project manager who oversaw the design of a mixed-use development and collaborated on the design of residential, commercial and civic projects.

During graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor Griffin was awarded the Konheim Memorial Fellowship to conduct research at Rocky Mountain Institute into the occupant health and productivity benefits associated with connecting the built and natural environments. His research appeared in the RMI publication Solutions as "An Introduction to Biophilia and the Built Environment." The recipient of the UC Berkeley Branner Traveling Fellowship, Professor Griffin received funding for a year of travel to study and document the relationship between permanence, culture, structure and sustainability.

Research

Building envelopes, mechanical systems and daylighting are the traditional emphasis of building science research. The role of structural systems in the overall performance of a building has been largely neglected. In contemporary practice, architects and engineers choose a structural system very early during the design process depending on constraints such as building codes, cost, required spans, construction schedule and site constraints. Very little consideration is given to other ways the structure could contribute to improving sustainable outcomes. This is in spite of the fact that the structure of a typical office building contributes roughly one-quarter of the initial embodied energy and is, at the very least, the armature for all other building systems.

Like all other aspects of a building, the structural system needs to be understood in terms of wide range of sustainability issues: embodied energy, operational energy, longevity and reuse. If structural systems could be left exposed without additional finishes and be configured to provide a higher level of thermal comfort, more daylight and acoustic isolation, this could significantly reduce the operational energy and the initial materials required for new construction. A multi-performance structural system, in contrast to high-performance structural materials that aim to only improve structural properties, offers considerable and largely untapped opportunities to improve new and existing buildings while potentially lowering construction costs.

Research Website