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November 24, 2009, 12:19 PM ET

Shop Talk: Tuesday, November 24

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

U. of Delaware Acquires 272-Acre Chrysler Plant in Newark, Del.

Pavilion X

Company Builds Pre-Fab Parapets for Mr. Jefferson's Pavilion X (Left: Pavilion X with its parapet restored; U. of Virginia image)

U. of Louisville Names a Building for Former President Who Later Resigned from U. of Tennessee

 

 

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November 24, 2009, 12:18 PM ET

Roosevelt U. Will Construct 32-Story Building With Classrooms and Housing

Roosevelt U.Roosevelt University is planning a glass-sheathed 32-story building that will have classrooms, labs, faculty and administrative offices, housing for 600 students, and a recreation center. The building is necessary, the Chicago institution says, because it expects a 50-percent increase in enrollment from 2007 to 2017.

The building, designed by VOA, will replace an existing dormitory on a 100-foot-by-170-foot lot on Wabash Avenue. It will adjoin the university's main building, an 1896 landmark by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler that was constructed to house the Auditorium Theater, a hotel, and an office building (left: The new glass tower rises beside the stone-clad Auditorium Building; Roosevelt U. images). According to the

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November 23, 2009, 01:00 PM ET

Colleges With an Interest in Heirloom Foods Get Ready for Turkey Day

This week's Chronicle has an article about colleges that are working with heirloom or "heritage" foods in their dining halls or in their research. Emory University is one of them—last week Emory served up 1,600 pounds of Standard Bronze and Bourbon Red turkeys, two breeds that date back to the 1800s but are in danger of dying out for lack of demand. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Producers of heritage or "heirloom" foods are fighting an uphill battle against the agriculture industry, which selects animals and plants for mass production and broad commercial appeal. In the process, foods that fed generations have been lost, along with their DNA and their traditions.

The heirloom-food movement might be the philosophical ground where gourmands and...

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November 23, 2009, 07:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Monday, November 23

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

Gould Hall

Renovation of U. of Oklahoma Architecture Building Reaches Halfway Point (Left: Gould Hall rendering; U. of Oklahoma image)

U. of Nebraska Regents Approve Plans for an Innovation Campus

Cost of Campus Projects in Indiana Worries Some

November 20, 2009, 01:27 PM ET

A New Garden at the U. of California at Davis Honors Patwin People

A new contemplation garden at the University of California at Davis honors the Patwin people, who once inhabited the land that became the campus. The garden, part of the university's 100-acre arboretum, is located on the bank of Putah Creek and includes 34 kinds of trees and plants that the Patwin used. The garden identifies many by their Patwin names.

UC Davis garden

The shape of a seating area in the new garden at the U. of California at Davis recalls the initial coil of a Patwin basket. (U. of California at Davis photo)

The garden also includes a series of engraved basalt columns, one of which records the names of 51 Patwin men, women, and children who were removed to missions between 1817...

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November 20, 2009, 10:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Friday, November 20

November 19, 2009, 08:52 AM ET

U. of California at Berkeley Backs Away From Plans for a $143-Million Art Museum

The University of California at Berkeley has scrapped high-profile plans for a $143-million art museum by the Tokyo firm Toyo Ito & Associates Architects, the museum's director said Wednesday. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the university canceled the project after raising only $81-million of the $200-million it sought in a capital campaign for the museum. But the museum's director, Lawrence Rinder, said it would still build an "innovative and affordable" new museum at some point.

The Toyo Ito building, planned for a site in downtown Berkeley, was to have replaced museum's current home, a poured-concrete Modernist structure on Bancroft Way that dates to 1970. Designed by Mario Ciampi and associates Richard...

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November 19, 2009, 08:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Thursday, November 19

November 18, 2009, 02:30 PM ET

Student Interest in Sustainability Rises, Despite Lack of Curricular Support

The National Wildlife Federation is releasing a report today that documents more than 160 student-led projects in sustainability and offers tips on how to start similar projects on campuses across the country.

Julian Keniry, director of the Campus Ecology program at the federation, said that the examples in the report document what many have observed about the current sustainability movement: There is unprecedented student interest in sustainability issues that has given rise to a diverse set of activities.

Ms. Keniry also said interest in sustainability cuts across some geographic and political demographics. "We have been impressed by the breadth of involvement," she said. "They are schools small and large, state, public, and private."

And although sustainability programs...

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November 18, 2009, 07:00 AM ET

Shop Talk: Wednesday, November 18