Brockway-Smith Company
Building Type: Commercial Office

Since 1890, the Brockway-Smith Company (a.k.a. Brosco) has represented a commitment to quality, value, and service in the distribution of millwork products throughout the Northeast. When Brosco decided to convert its Hatfield, MA warehouse space into a cafeteria and customer service offices, Solatube was chosen as the solution for bringing natural light into an otherwise windowless interior.

Objective
The project objective was to bring daylight into the new cafeteria and customer service areas so that employees can work and eat in a visually comfortable and stimulating environment. By introducing daylight, electric lighting consumption is also reduced, resulting in lower utility costs.

Products Used

Solution
When converting from warehouse to office and cafeteria space, Brosco was faced with a challenge. They had 27-foot high ceilings in some areas that were now being renovated with suspended ceilings at a height of 10 feet, leaving a 17-foot plenum space. A 17-foot run would be a challenge for most tubular daylighting devices, but not for Solatube Daylighting System. Solatube Daylighting System’s superreflective Spectralight® Infinity extension tubing can handle tube runs of 50 feet with minimal light loss. Another challenging factor on this installation was that all tube runs were not the same distance, and a few of the ceiling diffusers needed to be horizontally offset from the rooftop apertures. The Solatube Daylighting System modular design easily addressed the need for tubes with varying lengths, and the angle adapters (a standard feature) easily accommodated offsets. The OptiView® Diffusers, using a patented Fresnel lens technology, helped distribute the light evenly to maintain a consistent distribution of daylight throughout the space.

Testimonial
“Ours was a challenging job that most skylights on the market simply would not be able to handle. Standard skylights simply will not consistently transmit light down such a great distance. Solatube Daylighting Systems can. People function better with natural light. The company saves in more ways than one. We see better productivity from our people, and we expect to realize significant energy savings and lower utility costs.”

Al Dirth
General Manager
Brockway-Smith Company
Hatfield, MA