Green Higher Education

Designed by SWBR Architects, the Rochester Institute of Technology’s College for Applied Science and Technology Building was recently awarded LEED Gold certification from USGBC. SWBR’s design includes many of the standard LEED features, including recycled-content and locally-sourced building materials, lighting occupancy sensors and low-VOC paints and sealants. A graywater system that includes two 1500-gallon cisterns should conserve 75 percent of water over a conventional building, and energy efficient building systems are projected to save 21 percent on energy consumption annually. A “living wall” in the building’s lobby also includes a multimedia display to educate both students and visitors about the building’s green features, which earned the project team an additional point under LEED’s innovation credit category.

Designed by Richard Meier and Partners Architects, the $65 million Weill Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York recently earned just the sixth LEED Gold certification for a university laboratory building in the country. Energy consumption is obviously a huge consideration for science buildings, and Weill Hall is projected to use 30 percent less energy than a comparable building. This allowed the design team to push for LEED Gold during the construction phase rather than the original goal of Silver. The building includes a green roof and graywater reclamation system that should reduce stormwater runoff by 41 percent, and 60 percent of all timber used on the project was sourced from sustainable forests.

Boston-based Anna Beha Architects (”ABA”) has designed a renovation and expansion of Princeton University’s Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, whose building dates from 1901 and was formerly one of the school’s eating clubs. The project recently broke ground and contemplates a 5080-square-foot addition to the original, Italianate-style base building, which will house 18,8000 square feet of programming, office, and classroom space. The architect’s challenge was to reclaim the building’s original design, which it discovered through researching the university’s archives had been buried by a series of poorly executed previous renvovations. ABA was charged with creating useable outdoor space, as well as visible entry points into the structure.

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.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s Center for Environmental and Scientific Education and William D. McDowell Observatory in Lyndhurst is just a stone’s throw away from the Sports Complex. The 10,000-square-foot structure housing the Center will be operated by Ramapo College as a study center for both astronomy and environmental education; the NJMC is seeking an unspecified level of LEED certification for the project. Designed by architect Fredric A. Rosen and built by general contractor Bernard Associates, the Center includes a number of classrooms, science labs, and a multipurpose room geared for use by both K-12 students and the general public, offering an environmental curriculum that will also emphasize the building’s sustainable features.

In the fall of 2008, the New School will begin offering a multi-disciplinary program in Environmental Studies. Students may choose to take either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies, and each brings its own level of specialization. The new program will be administered by the New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center, which is currently the main area of environmental studies at the university. It will focus on New York City as its laboratory, with a special emphasis on urban ecosystems and sustainable design.

A new dorm at Queens College will seek a LEED Silver rating from USGBC, but local residents are more concerned with the impact to the neighborhood from the 506-bed facility- particularly from student parking- rather than the project’s sustainable features. The dorm, which will be located at 64-80 Kissena Boulevard, will feature 144 units across one building constructed in three-, four-, and five-story wings connected by a series of walkways. The 156,000-square-foot dorm will include an underground parking garage with capacity for 89 cars, and the college will create an additional 100 scattered throughout the rest of the campus.

Last fall, the Poly Prep Lower School at 50 Prospect Park West in Brooklyn completed an 18,000-square-foot expansion project, designed by Sam White of Platt Byard Dovell White Architects. The $2 million effort expanded the school’s original 21,800-square-foot space in the adjacent Hulbert Mansion- which was reconfigured as part of the expansion- and is aiming for the first LEED certification awarded to any school in New York City. Contractor RCDolner built the addition in a scant nine months; it was the firm’s first LEED project and involved a number of significant design challenges.