Kai tours the new Orinda City Hall

May 24, Thursday

Kai tampers with desk keys.

Greg has been doing some HVAC contract work with the newly built city hall in Orinda. This building is to house an extension of the police department and whatever other city ordinances. What I found most remarkable about this place was their floors were made of recycled cork, the workstations of recycled sawdust and pressboard, and the furniture ergonomic. I have done ergonomic consultations for Silicon Valley companies, i.e. Siebel Systems, thus I was really impressed with their pick of chairs and keyboard trays.

Kai peeks in on daddy, who has a temporary workstation in the electrical room of the building.

But most impressive was the temperature control of the facility. A gauge would determine if the air conditioning or fans should be turned on, otherwise a hall light will inform people to open their windows to improve ventilation. The neat thing was you could also, via remote access, control the thermostat settings from a computer anywhere in the world.

Great technology wouldn't you say? Also a mean trick to play on someone by fiddling with the thermostat. Say, confuse someone with hot flashes or hormonal imbalance?