Given today’s renewed focus on recruitment and retention of faculty and staff members—to say nothing of the intense competition for the best and brightest students—a healthy and productive academic setting is imperative. So the long-term performance and humane quality of the physical environment has become a critical element of sustainable design on college campuses. The best 21st-century operational plans follow a three-pronged, integrated strategy for resource stewardship that combines human, financial, and environmental factors in a single process.

This starts with a life-cycle approach to decision-making that is grounded in respect for the unique campus environment (both indoors and out) and the people who use it. Physical and operational planning strategies that pay back quickly and are popular in the community—such as effective energy and water use—need to be balanced by human a...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Michael Graves Is Nominated for the New Jersey Hall of Fame (Left: New entrance to Wilcox Hall, Princeton U., by Michael Graves and Associates; Chronicle photograph by Lawrence Biemiller)

• Calatrava Presents His Vision for U. of South Florida Polytechnic Campus

• U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Will Renovate 1911 Lincoln Hall 

• Savannah State U. Plans Student Center, Upgrades for Stadium

• Point Park U. Will Convert YMCA to Student Center

Other colleges would love to have this problem: Halifax Community College recently "found" 50 unused acres on its property, according to the Daily Herald, in nearby Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

Smith Sinnett Architecture discovered the land after the college hired the firm to guide a planning process. "We think this is significant for the future of the college," said one of the architects, Richard Andrews. "It doubles the size of the campus in terms of development.” If the college had to buy the land, it might have paid $30,000 an acre, the article says.

The architects suggested that Halifax could use the land for purposes as varied as a technology center and a nature trail. The college is planning a $12.8-million, 63,000-square-foot academic-and-student-services center.

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Oklahoma City Community College Replaces Signature Red Roof (left; Oklahoma City Community College image)

• American U. in Cairo Opens New Campus in the Desert

8 Propspect Street occupies part of the site where Yale plans to build two residential colleges. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller)

New Haven, Conn. — Yale University officials conducted one of their occasional tours for architecture writers yesterday, and the focus was on renovating campus buildings by the great Modernist Eero Saarinen — Ingalls Rink and Morse and Stiles Colleges. We'll have more about the Saarinen buildings in a couple of days, but for now suffice it to say that the rainy walk over to the hockey rink led right past what a New Haven Advocate writer picked as the "Best Doomed Building in the City" — a Yale building known simply as 8 Prospect Place.

It's far from being either historic or grandiose. In fact, it was always intended as a temporary structure, as its corrugated-steel exterior seems to suggest. Designed in just three months by Centerbrook...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• SUNY Institute of Technology Begins Work on $20-Million Field House (left; SUNYIT image)

• Universities Look to Keep Event Rooms Full as Meeting Business Declines

• Indiana U. School of Medicine at Fort Wayne Will Dedicate New Building Friday

• Opponents Protest Destruction of 16 Trees at Northern New Mexico College

Princeton, N.J. — It was a balky heating-and-air-conditioning system that started the ball rolling. By the time it stopped, Princeton University and the architecture firm Farewell Mills Gatsch had almost completely renovated and upgraded the interior of Whig Hall, a marble temple from the 1890s that—thanks to the late Charles Gwathmey—ended up as a landmark of Modernist architecture.

Whig Hall (left) is the successor to a series of literary-society spaces that date back to the 1760s, when the university was still called the College of New Jersey and two groups of students formed groups to practice debating and other literary skills. One group was called the American Whig Society, and the other the Cliosophic Society. In 1837, Whig and Clio began building identical Greek Revival halls on what was then the back campus. As the end of the 19th century approached, however, members...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Developer Seeks to Add Condos in Old Marymount College Building (Left: Marymount College in an undated postcard view; the college closed in 1989)

• Williston State College Breaks Ground for Career and Technical Education Building

• Bradley U. Plans $22-Million Expansion of Its 2nd-Oldest Building

• In Campus Apartments, U. of Richmond Students Complain of Leaks and Mildew

Consider it a sign of the times: The decline of the gas guzzler, the fall of the auto industry ... and the growth of the university?

The University of Delaware has signed a deal to purchase 272 acres in Newark, just south of the main campus, from Chrysler for $24-million. On the site is a factory where Chrysler made SUV's until December, when it was closed. The deal, which was submitted to a federal bankruptcy court on Friday afternoon, came about after 19 months of negotiations.

If approved by the court, the sale would significantly add to the footprint of the 968-acre campus. A news release says Delaware will probably use the site for a research-and-technology campus to encourage partnerships with the military, local health-sciences organizations, and other businesses.

The site is adjacent to an Amtrak station, and university officials say they will take advantage of that...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• New Research Building at Harvard Medical School Wins Award (Left; photograph by Esto)

• U. of Nebraska Seeks to Replace Its 'Most Embarrassing Facility' 

• North Dakota Adopts Rules to Prevent Cost Overruns on Building Projects

• Temple U. Medical School Is 'Warm and Welcoming'