ABSTRACT

Found in the hundreds of boxes Harold R. Hay entrusted to the California Polytechnic State University, which now constitute the Cal Poly Harold R. Hay Archive located in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, this chapter consists of an unpublished letter that offers Hay’s voice in his activist cause for passive design. Written in 1975 and addressed to the Select Committee On Small Business of the United States, the letter’s purpose is to outline chronologically the development of the roofpond system – Skytherm – characterized by General Electric Company as: “Conceptually, the Skytherm house would appear to be an ideally simple, inherently straightforward, and particularly appropriate use of the nature energies of solar radiation and night-sky cooling.” Through his words, we learn about the project’s history, its difficulties and Hay’s relentless commitment to transmit the importance and necessity for passive energy design implementation within the built environment.

Statement of Harold R. Hay

Inventor and Owner of Skytherm Systems

Skytherm Processes and Engineering

2424 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90057

October 20, 1975