david-bryan-photoThird Level Design is an architectural consulting firm specializing in designing buildings with low environmental impact. Achievement of this goal involves reusing existing structures where possible, using materials and processes that are not environmentally disruptive and have low embodied energy, designing with the climate, being sensitive to the building site, conserving water and most important, conserving energy use.

The building enclosure is the interface between human needs and the natural world. It impacts energy use, comfort, and the user’s relationship to the external environment.  As such, it is the critical architectural element for determining environmental impact and is the focus of our services.

Services include building enclosure detailing and materials specification, energy modeling to guide the design process, and hygrothermal modeling to ensure that building enclosures are long-lasting, healthy and moisture-tolerant.

Projects are organized and managed by David Bryan; other team members are hired on an as-needed basis.  David Bryan’s experience:

  • 30 years of designing and detailing residential and commercial buildings across the country. This includes hundreds of millions of dollars of building enclosure design and construction administration.
  • Years of experience in building energy modeling using Equest and Energy Plus simulation programs.
  • Evaluation of the actual energy savings produced by residential weatherization programs for thousands of Minnesota residential customers of Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy and Ottertail Power Company.
  • Moisture risk analysis of many types of building enclosures using WUFI, a revolutionary, advanced and well-validated hygrothermal modeling program. WUFI basic and advanced training by the Fraunhofer Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff. Experience in both one and two-dimensional WUFI simulations.
  • Master of Architecture from M.I.T. with a concentration in energy conservation, energy modeling and renewable energy technologies.
  • Click here to download resume.