ASHRAE Journal - December 2019 - 53

ASHRAE - CELEBRATING 125 YEARS

Conclusions
This historical review of key milestones in theater system design shows deeply intertwined roots of ASHRAE
with the public's ﬁrst major introduction to air conditioning. Without the advent of ﬁlm, the demand for
research may have taken a different course. Yet today,
we beneﬁt from the incredible work of many on air
distribution, refrigeration, psychrometrics, controls,
thermal comfort, and ventilation in support of theaters
across the United States.
The historic theater work described has signiﬁcantly beneﬁted from the work of ASHRAE over the
past 125 years. Many of the questions asked in the late
19th and early 20th centuries continue to be topics
of focus today, beneﬁtting from a global network of
professionals, technology, and research. The research
and development driven by theaters led a generation of leaders to better understand thermal comfort, ventilation, architectural engineering integration, and early notions of the societal and economic
impact of conditioned environments. ASHRAE's
work and the "Secretary of the Interior's Standards
for Rehabilitation"3 complement each other and are
a focus of the recently released ASHRAE Guideline
34-2019, Energy Efﬁciency for Historic Buildings.
The sensitivity required by the "Secretary's
Standards"3 has driven a demand for integrated design
and construction, new products, and higher efﬁciency
technologies that allow reductions in system size. The
next century will see a new generation of buildings
requiring our continued collective stewardship as we
continue to improve wellness and address environmental sustainability and economic resilience.

References
1. Basile, Salvatore. 2014. Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed
Everything. New York City: Fordham University Press.
2. Cooper, Gail. 1998. Air-Conditioning America: Engineers and the
Controlled Environment, 1900-1960. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press.
3. National Park Service "Secretary's Standards for
Rehabilitation." https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/rehabilitation.
htm (accessed May 6, 2019).

Bibliography
Ackermann, Marsha. 2010. Cool Comfort: America's Romance with
Air-Conditioning. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books.
EyeWitness to History. 2007. "Air Conditioning Goes to the
Movies, 1925." www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ac.htm.

Theatre Historical Society of America. "Scientiﬁcally Cooled! The
Dawn of Air-Conditioned Theatres." https://historictheatres.org/
blog/2017/02/03/__trashed/ (accessed May 6, 2019).
Wheeler, Arthur. 1999. "A view of IAQ as the century closes."
ASHRAE Journal (11).
99% Invisible. 2018. "Thermal Delight."
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/thermal-delight/.

Historic Photo Resources
Cinema Treasures. "Rivoli Theater." http://cinematreasures.org/
theaters/555/photos/195504.
Cinema Treasures. "Tampa Theater." http://cinematreasures.org/
theaters/10/photos.
Cinema Treasures. "Capitol Theater." http://cinematreasures.
org/theaters/811/photos.
Cinema Treasures. "Riviera Theater." http://cinematreasures.
org/theaters/315/photos.
Willis Carrier. "Willis Carrier Photo Library." http://www.
williscarrier.com/gallery.php.
The Cleveland Memory Project, Michael Schwartz Library at
Cleveland State University. "Playhouse Square during the day
in 1928." http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm/ref/collection/
playhousesq/id/15.
The Cleveland Memory Project. "Playhouse Square." http://www.
clevelandmemory.org/playhousesquare/.

Improving Ventilation in Homes,
Offices, and Everything in Between -

Standard 62.1-2019
and Standard 62.2-2019
ANSI/ASHRAE Standards 62.1 and 62.2 are the
recognized standards for ventilation system design and
acceptable IAQ.
Standard 62.1-2019 - Ventilation for
Acceptable Indoor Air Quality
Standard 62.2-2019 - Ventilation and
Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings

ashrae.org/standard62

D E C E M B E R 2 0 19

ashrae.org

ASHRAE JOURNAL

ASHRAE Journal - December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - December 2019