Cornell University

Cornell University

ML: Richard Meier's Weill Hall at Cornell Earns LEED Gold

Mon

Oct

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. In addition, during the construction phase, 65 percent of construction debris was recycled. Other green features include reflective sidewalks; Weill Hall is also part of Cornell's Lake Source Cooling Project, which eliminates the need for campus refrigeration systems by drawing upon the cold waters of nearby Cayuga Lake.

April Upstate New York Green Real Estate Report*

Tue

Apr

by Stephen Del Percio

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Ithaca is located in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes region, an area of beautiful lakes, waterfalls, rolling hills, farmland, vineyards, and state parks. The city was just named the second “Best Green Place in America” in a survey commissioned by Country Home Magazine, which reported that more than sixteen percent of Ithaca's residents walk to work- the highest percentage in the nation. By combining walkers with bike riders and public transit riders with home office workers, Ithaca is number one when it comes to green commuters. (Image of 2005 Cornell Solar Decathlon Team entry above). Most of the green commuting in Ithaca is a result of Cornell University’s policies, which are a model for the entire country, and include things like indoor bike storage in new buildings and alternative fuel recharging areas for Cornell electric vehicles to encourage transportation alternatives. With 20,000 students, it is hard for the green scene in Ithaca to not be dominated by Cornell, which sits like emerald city, a shining beacon of greenness, on a hilltop overlooking the city and 40 mile-long, 400 foot-deep Cayuga Lake- the largest of the Finger Lakes of central New York State. University students, staff, and faculty members make up a third of Tompkins County’s population of 97,000 and support an amazing number of green initiatives. When it comes to real estate, Cornell has a lot of it. There are more than 260 major buildings on the 745 contiguous acres that comprise Cornell's flagship campus. How energy is generated and how efficiently it is used in all of this real estate is crucial to sustainability, and Cornell has been working hard to address clean energy production and energy efficiency. Because Cornell is so big- about 14 million square feet of indoor space across 260 campus buildings- it has established its own Green Building Oversight Committee, and it seems as if everything Cornell does revolves around sustainable issues.