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...

Leon Krier is an architectural traditionalist, no doubt. At the beginning of his recent book, The Architecture of Community (Island Press), he essentially asks readers to make a choice: Which would you rather see torn down -- all of the "historic" structures, or all of the "modern" ones?

For Mr. Krier, the preference for traditional structures is as much about aesthetics as it is about pragmatism, as you can see from his illustration at left. He contends -- and you can argue with him on this point -- that traditional buildings were better built and more suited to the energy challeneges of the future than would modern structures. Mr. Krier is a proponent of peak oil, the theory that oil supplies will reach a production peak and then begin a steep decline -- with disastrous consequences. The forward to his latest book -- Drawing for Architecture (MIT Press), a collection of his drawings...

On the way to the train in Baltimore, I picked up the latest issue of Urbanite, a local magazine that focuses on city living and sustainability. (Up-front disclosure: I'm a contributing writer there.) This month's issue had a couple of articles that are relevant to readers of Buildings & Grounds.

The first is about community-centered design, the now-familar practice of getting designers -- in particular, student designers -- to go to needy communities and apply their talents. (See an essay about the topic from the recent Chronicle architecture issue.) The article in the Urbanite, "Building for the Better," focuses in part on the work of students from the Maryland Institute College of Art, who were working in Greensboro, Ala., and on the architecture program at Morgan State University, which is organizing work in troubled West Baltimore.

“At Morgan we design with social responsibility a...

Colleges were quick to announce good scores on the Sustainable Endowments Institute's annual sustainability report card, which was released recently. It was up to student-run newspapers to publicize the middling to poor grades earned by some other institutions.

For example, the Indiana Daily Student ran an editorial noting Indiana University's B- mark (still, an improvement over last year's C+) and urged the administration to do more.

"It is still unclear how committed the university actually is to the cause," wrote Nathan Dixon. "For example, IU has yet to join the 392 colleges and universities [actually 600-plus] whose presidents have signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. ... The fact that IU President Michael McRobbie hasn’t yet felt compelled to sign the ACUPCC is somewhat troubling, considering his ambitious--and controversial--construction...

Team California has the architecture prize in the Solar Decathlon all wrapped up. (Department of Energy photo)

Team California, comprising Santa Clara University and the California College of the Arts, has won the architecture prize in the Solar Decathlon for a house shaped like a "bent tube that controls the entry of light into the house while wrapping around a central courtyard."

The contest, which is far from over, takes place on the National Mall, in Washington, every two years. Teams of student architects and engineers from various colleges compete in categories that also include market viability, lighting design, engineering, and the sharing of information with visitors. Many of those categories have yet to be judged. The decathlon's overall winner will be announced on Friday.

In the meantime, visitors can walk through the houses nearly every day this week to check out the...

The center will house a college, some departments, and dozens of classrooms and labs. (U. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh image)

This Friday the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh will break ground on a $48-million academic center. At 191,000 square feet, the building brings the university back into construction mode in a big way: Oshkosh has not put up an academic building since 1971.

The center, which was designed by VOA, a Chicago architecture firm, will include dozens of classrooms and labs and two lecture halls, and will house the College of Business and five liberal-arts departments.

The center is shooting for a LEED gold rating, which may save the university more than $180,000 in energy bills each year, according to The Reporter, a newspaper in nearby Fond du Lac. Oshkosh is giving top billing to the project's green aspects and their effect on the local economy. Campus...

The bat house at the U. of Florida is taking tenants. (U. of Florida photo)

The bats at the University of Florida have just gotten a remodeled place to roost, reports The Gainesville Sun.

"The original bat house was built in 1991 to address a problem with bats roosting in campus athletic facilities," the article says. "The inside of the structure collapsed in August, killing about 100 bats. The massive number of bats inside -- estimated to be more than 200,000 at the time -- was believed to have led to the collapse." The structure had also been weakened by its design -- it trapped the bats' urine and feces inside the house, which rotted the wood.

The new bat house will support as many as 400,000 bats. The university is also planning to build another structure, called the bat barn, that will include space for bat babies. The bat barn may even include a bat cam to record...

The chapel at Davis & Elkins College, awaiting launch. (Photographs by Scott Carlson)

Elkins, W.Va. -- Davis & Elkins College has been getting quite a bit of publicity from us lately (that's what happens when a Chronicle reporter strolls your campus, camera in hand), but here's a final mention on Buildings & Grounds. And we don't have much to say about this building, the Robbins Chapel, other than we thought it was interesting.

No one on the campus (no one we talked with, anyway) could tell us the name of the architect. I found at random this blog item, about a wedding, in which the writer says the bride's father was the architect. (Nice pictures there, too.) One history of the college says the chapel was built around 1976; another says it dates to 1972.

The building resembles a rocket. Seating for 120 people is set in the round, descending toward the center, which magnifies the ...

The old icehouse at Davis & Elkins College was converted into a pub in the 1960s. (Chronicle photographs by Scott Carlson)

Last week we wrote a bit about the two 1890s mansions at Davis & Elkins College. The icehouse of one of them, Halliehurst, has just been repurposed. It is now the campus tavern, used mainly on weekends.

Scott D. Goddard, dean of student life, let me in on a weekday night to see the interior. The 1890 structure was once used to store ice cut from a frozen lake in wintertime. Packed with sawdust in the thick-walled, partially buried building, the blocks would stay frozen well into summer. The presence of tunnels to Halliehurst indicate that the icehouse was also used as a primitive air conditioner, Mr. Goddard said.

The interior is a cavelike space.

The icehouse remained in use until 1923, says a wall plaque. Much later, in the late...

Ann Holley's 125-square-foot house makes a statement about living on less. (Photograph courtesy Alfred U.)

Ann Holley, a graduate student in sculpture at Alfred University, arrived at the university this year with her own living quarters: ProtoHaus, a tiny house that she designed with her husband, Darren Macca, an industrial designer. The house, which was constructed in seven weeks over the summer, is about 22 feet by 8 feet and is set on a trailer for mobility.

"I spent most of the spring semester working on the plans and a proposal to the university to allow me to bring the house and park it here on campus," Ms. Holley says. She says the university gave her a "great spot" on the campus at the edge of a residential neighborhood.

Ms. Holley says her work in sculpture strives to start conversations among people, and ProtoHaus is no exception. Built with natural and recycled...