concepts · updated 2026-08-01
Bill Mingenbach
confidence: medium volatility: cold verified: 2026-08-01fresh
Taos architect (The Architects, Taos) and named Cool Cell venture partner. Suggested overhead 8-inch PVC ceiling tanks to Steve Baer, a key Cool Cell development step (combined with the August 1999 switch to rooftop radiators). Also credited, as William Mingenbach AIA, with the passive solar NM State Office Building in Taos (1976).
Suggested 8″ PVC pipes overhead as ceiling water tanks to Steve Baer — combined with the switch to rooftop radiators in August 1999, this proved superior to wall radiators (roofs radiate more effectively than walls, per Cramer and Newbauer’s 1964 Solar Energy Journal paper) and became a key development step toward the Cool Cell. See Cool Cell architectural climate-control.
The Cool Cell Q&A brochure names “Bill Mingenbach of Architects Taos” first among the outside parties involved in the Cool Cell venture — alongside Dick Bourne of Integrated Comfort (Davis, CA) and Nanopore Incorporated (Albuquerque).
Credited, as “William Mingenbach AIA, The Architects, Taos, NM,” with the State of New Mexico Office Building in Taos (June 1976, Job No. 7507) — one of the built-project examples in Baer’s 2009 AIA passive solar slideshow. The slide reproduces a “typical roof monitor section”: reflective aluminum roofs and ceilings, thermal storage drums sized at 70 lbs of water per square foot of glass, and motorized insulating shutters with reflective skins that modulate between closed, intermediate, and open positions. See Baer AIA passive solar slideshow.
Identity note
The Cool Cell partner (“Bill Mingenbach of Architects Taos”) and the 1976 state-office-building architect (“William Mingenbach AIA, The Architects, Taos”) share both name and firm, so the archive treats them as the same person; no third-party biography confirms it independently. Full biography and the extent of his Zomeworks involvement are not documented in the archive.