Three Rivers Community College (Conn.), Norwich, Conn.

Building Type: Academic

Construction Type: Renovation

Cost: $62-million

Square Footage: 300,000

Architect: Mitchell/Giurgola Architects; Fletcher-Thompson Inc.

Contractor: Skanska USA Building

Opened: 2009

Three Rivers Community College consolidated two campuses into one larger campus at the college's Thames location in Norwich, Conn. The facility includes a library, a cafeteria, a multipurpose room, a wellness center, a child-care center, student facilities, general and special-purpose classrooms, and laboratories, as well as offices for faculty members and administrators.

(Photo: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO)

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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will spend the next decade weaning its cogeneration plant off coal, the university's chancellor, Holden Thorp, said Tuesday morning. He spoke at a campus event attended by Bruce Nilles, head of a Sierra Club campaign that has challenged colleges and universities to abandon coal.

Universities "must lead the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy," which in Chapel Hill's case could be a mix of biomass and other fuels, Mr. Thorp said. This spring the university will try firing its boilers with a mix of coal and dried wood pellets, and later it will test a mix of coal and a charcoal-like product called torrefied wood. The university will also try to buy only coal from deep mines, rather than from surface-mining operations, which remove layers of ground cover and rock to get at the coal.

The university says 20 percent of the coal...

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University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I.

Building Type: Science

Construction Type: New

Cost: $54-million

Square Footage: 140,000

Architect: Payette; Lerner, Ladds & Bartels

Contractor: Gilbane Building Company

Opened: 2009

This building is organized by a four-story glass atrium connecting two wings joined in an L-shape. One wing contains research labs, lab-support spaces, and faculty offices, while the other wing contains teaching labs, classrooms, and administrative space. This arrangement is intended to allow research and teaching activity to coexist on multiple floors and to facilitate interaction between faculty members and students. The building accommodates approximately 30 faculty members and their research groups, and also includes a 300-seat auditorium, a genomics lab with DNA-sequencing equipment, a bio-safety Level 3 lab, and an aquaria lab. Incubator space for...

Columbia University Medical Center, New York, N.Y.

Building Type: Academic

Construction Type: Renovation

Cost: $8-million

Square Footage: 16,650

Architect: Mitchell/Giurgola Architects

Contractor: James A. Jennings Company

Opened: 2009

This project renovated two floors of a building to accommodate 15 lab groups that are part of the new Motor Neuron Center. The renovation brought open-plan wet laboratories, offices, space for meetings, and support spaces, including a histology lab, a microscopy facility, cold rooms, glassware-washing facilities, a robotics room, and equipment rooms.

(Photo: Albert Vecerka/Esto )

Does your institution have a new building or a recently completed renovation? Make sure it gets included in our campus-architecture database.

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State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y.

Building Type: Science

Construction Type: New

Cost: $36.6-million

Square Footage: 100,000

Architect: Mitchell/Giurgola Architects

Contractor: URS Corporation

Opened: 2009

This facility serves as research center for the wireless- and wired-information technology industries. The building also serves as the gateway to Stony Brook's new research-and-development campus, which the center is intended to anchor. The building contains flexible, open lab spaces, a multipurpose room, and supporting offices.

(Photo: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO)

Does your institution have a new building or a recently completed renovation? Make sure it gets included in our campus-architecture database.

Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, Mass.

Building Type: Residential

Construction Type: Renovation

Cost: $28-million

Square Footage: 143,000

Architect: Pfeufer Richardson Architects

Contractor: Consigli Construction Company

Opened: 2009

Two boxlike 1950s dormitories were renovated and expanded to respond to changing student demands for social and academic interaction, as well as to update heating, air-conditioning, and safety systems, make accessibility improvements, and repair the building envelope. New student lounges and lobbies with clearly delineated entrances and circulation cores give the buildings a transitional style that helps define the entrance to the campus and offers a connection between historic and new architectural styles. The buildings remained occupied during construction, and the project achieved LEED silver status.

(Photos: Greg Anthony)