Founded by Professor of Architecture G.Z. Brown, affectionately known as Charlie, ESBL was officially established in the 1980’s. Starting years before, Charlie’s desire for a pardigm shift in the field of architecture was underway at the University of Oregon. He inspired architects, faculty, students, and engineers to design resilient buildings by focusing on the use of natural systems, such as daylight, solar heating, and passive cooling to maintain environmental comfort throughout the Northwest and beyond. ESBL employed research and empirical evidence, often collected from custom design tools, to inform new design concepts, working with students, architecture and engineering firms to translate and apply findings to realized projects. This began a virtuous cycle of using integrated design to inform new research questions and establish a conduit of industry partners for research impact.

As ESBL grew, our scope grew too. With the partnership of collaborating labs and industry pursued through the Institute for Health in the Built Environment, we design everything from housing that is resilient and lower cost to homeowners, to specialized building testing tools. We employ and educate students at the University of Oregon. We research human comfort, materials, daylight, acoustics, passive systems and more. Many of the buildings on the University of Oregon campus have been designed or redesigned with guidance from the ESBL team.

We are constantly working with the newest building technologies, and solving real-world problems influenced by the design and operation of the built environment.