ML: Glass Tower Hall at SUNY Cortland Earns LEED Certified Rating

SUNY Cortland’s Glass Tower Hall dormitory building recently received LEED certification from USGBC. The $12.6 million project was completed back in August of 2005 and is the school’s newest residence hall, housing upper-class and transfer students.The 194-bed dorm includes a bicycle room that’s large enough to store a bike for every student, as well as charging stations for hybrid automobiles. Standard LEED features include efficient HVAC systems, windows, and insulation. The design team, which included Ashley McGraw Architects and Burt Hill Kosar Rittlement Associates, also specified a number of sustainable features for the project’s landscaping, including narrow sidewalks, efficient lighting, and native shrubbery.

DASNY- the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, which is the largest higher education, healthcare and public-purpose bonding and construction authority in the nation- was founded in 1944 and is currently managing over 700 projects worth $7 billion across New York State. As of January 1, 2008, each DASNY project- including court and healthcare facilities- is required to achieve a LEED Silver rating. As part of the effort, DASNY is aiming for a thirty-two percent reduction in energy use for each of the new buildings that it constructs under the LEED program.

SUNY Cortland is located about a half hour south of Syracuse and last year ranked as one of the top 100 best values in public education by Kiplinger’s. The construction manager for the Glass Tower Hall project was LPCiminelli.

• Glass Tower Hall Earns LEED Certification (SUNY Cortland)
• DASNY to Require LEED Silver (gbNYC)

ML is short for our weekly Monday LEEDoff™ column, which typically profiles a different LEED project generally in (but not limited to) the New York City area. You can access an archive of profiled projects via this link.