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November 16, 2009, 01:50 PM ET

New Campus Buildings for Business, Reflection, Living, and Learning

Southern Vermont College has opened a 41,000-square-foot, $7.5-million building that mixes living space for 110 students with a science lab, a computer lab, offices, a wellness center, and a glassy atrium. The building—the college's first new structure in 17 years—also includes a simulation lab in which nursing students can practice procedures on interactive patient simulators. Called Hunter Hall, the building was designed by Centerline Architects.

Hunter Hall

Hunter Hall is Southern Vermont College's first new building in 17 years. (Southern Vermont College photo)

Interfaith Center interior

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November 16, 2009, 08:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Monday, November 16

November 13, 2009, 02:00 PM ET

Caltech Opens an Academic Building by 'the Anti-Thom Mayne'

The California Institute of Technology wants its newest building to bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines to solve information-science questions—and save energy and water at the same time.

Annanberg Center

Frederick Fisher and Partners designed Caltech's new interdisciplinary-research building. (Caltech photos)

The 47,000-square-foot, $22-million building, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology, is a sharp-looking classroom-and-office facility that is intended to earn gold-level certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. It was designed by the Los Angeles firm...

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November 13, 2009, 09:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Friday, November 13

November 12, 2009, 01:04 PM ET

Kresge Foundation Offers Grant to Help Minority Colleges Green Up

The United Negro College Fund has received a $1.8-million grant from the Kresge Foundation that will help establish training programs to promote green building at minority-serving institutions. The program was set up with the help of Second Nature, a leading sustainability organization in higher education.

The grant will establish institutes and workshops to train college staff members in green-building practices. The fund plans three workshops, in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Antonio, starting this February. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund will also participate.

The $2-billion Kresge Foundation is known for giving money to construction programs. In a news conference this morning, William F.L. Moses, director of programs, said that because of Kresge's...

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November 12, 2009, 08:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Thursday, November 12

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

Innovation Center

Indiana U. Dedicates Center for University Researchers and Start-Ups (Left: the Innovation Center, designed by BSA LifeStructures; Indiana U. photo by Aaron Bernstein)

Mall Linking State Capitol to U. of Nebraska Awaits Renovation

• Pereira's New England Center at U. of New Hampshire Makes 'Seven to Save' List

Update on New...

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November 11, 2009, 10:42 AM ET

11-Story Tower Will Mark New Arts Complex at U. of Chicago

Logan Center

The U. of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts is due to open in 2012. (U. of Chicago images)

On Tuesday evening the University of Chicago unveiled plans for a $114-million, 170,000-square-foot arts complex with an 11-story tower, sheathed in stone and glass, that seems certain to become a local landmark. The building, designed by the New York architecture firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is to be constructed beside the city's famous Midway Plaisance, now the southern edge of the campus and once the pleasure grounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Groundbreaking is set for next spring, and the facility is expected to open in 2012.

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November 11, 2009, 07:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Wednesday, November 11

November 10, 2009, 12:00 PM ET

Middlebury College Flies Concrete Up a Ski Mountain to Build a New Lift

Middlebury College recently found that a 40-year-old chairlift at its ski facility, the Snow Bowl, was in need of repair and would not meet state regulations. Instead of spending $500,000 for repairs to the double-chair lift, a university release says, the college is spending $1.7-million to replace the old lift with a triple-chair version.

As the video below explains, some of the concrete foundations of the lift towers were failing. Workers could have replaced those concrete foundations, but that would have been considered a major modification that would trigger requirements to bring the rest of the lift up to code. Getting the concrete for the piers up the mountain, as you can see in the video, is no small project. The workmen have to use a helicopter to fly the soupy...

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November 10, 2009, 08:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Tuesday, November 10