The University of Florida is breaking ground on an expansion for its Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. The expansion will add some 25,000 square feet to the building, a growth of 30 percent, and will cost $20-million. The addition will hold the museum’s Asian-art collection.

“We are thoughtfully and excitedly embarking upon this construction with the museum’s mission in mind,” Rebecca Nagy, Harn Museum of Art director, said in a press release.

Emphasis on “thoughtfully” there. Florida’s budget situation is looking dire, with institutions bracing for cuts and possible layoffs. The Harn addition was sponsored in part by a $10-million donation from David and Mary Ann...

The Wisconsin state budget will be almost $6-billion in the red in the near future, but the University of Wisconsin at Madison may still push ahead with $580-million in building projects, reports The Capital Times.

Wisconsin taxpayers would cover $81.6-million of that $580.9 million, with the rest coming from gifts, grants, and university revenue, the paper reports. Part of the money will go toward the building of the Wisconsin Energy Institute, which will conduct research on biomass energy. The Charter Street coal plant, which had been the focus of a recent Sierra Club lawsuit, will also get an upgrade in the spending spree. Officials will convert the plant to a biomass-burning facility.

Other planned projects include a tower for the Wisconsin Institutes for...

Walter Simpson, the former energy officer at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the editor of The Green Campus, has just published an article about how to create and follow through on a plan to get to campus climate neutrality in APPA’s Facilities Manager.

The article includes a few recommendations that campus leaders might find difficult to follow, like quitting coal (which, while dirty, is also cheap) and avoiding new construction (that seems to be unpalatable for most institutions — including Mr. Simpson’s former employer, which recently released a draft plan to add several...

A Farm for the Future, a BBC documentary about the prospects of agriculture after peak oil, is now available online. The program, which was made by the wildlife filmmaker Rebecca Hosking, begins on a conventional farm owned by Ms. Hosking’s father in England’s South Devon region. The documentary goes from there to explore other low-energy, low-impact farming methods that Ms. Hosking says might be necessary in an energy-starved (and food-starved) future.

The documentary should be compelling viewing for anyone involved with campus sustainability and food projects. We’ve recently discussed the importance of teaching...

Not Square: Claremont McKenna College’s award-winning residences were designed by CO Architects. (Photo by Paul Turang)

Student housing at Claremont McKenna College has won a 2009 design award from the magazine Residential Architect.

The housing was designed by CO Architects. The designers say that in creating the residences, they tried to exploit the best aspects of the Southern California climate by setting the buildings around courtyards that blur the distinction between inside and outside spaces. The living areas are arranged in “social units” that encourage students to congregate in common areas and on balconies.

The architects also say they imitated building techniques that have been used in Mediterranean climates for ages. The buildings have a kind of cubist aesthetic, with staggered, operable windows and angled forms. The...

Two condominium owners who say they were forced to sell their homes to make way for the George W. Bush Presidential Library have rejected a $2-million settlement offer from Southern Methodist University, reports The Houston Chronicle.

According to the newspaper, Southern Methodist officials say that they purchased the condominium property for a variety of possible projects. The former president and First Lady may be deposed for testimony about the case and what the university told them about the plans for the land.

The story says that Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the university, “is prepared to play ‘hardball’ to bring the matter to an end.”

A date with dynamite: The former Union Carbide headquarters, now owned by the University of Charleston, will be imploded on Saturday. (Photo by Michael Runion)

“Pumpman 1994” — also known as Chris Belcher of Cincinnati — won an auction on eBay to blow up an old Union Carbide building owned by the University of Charleston. He paid $5,207 dollars for the right to push the detonator button that will bring the chemical company’s former headquarters to the ground this Saturday.

It appears, however, that he will give up this glorious opportunity for destruction. According to a local news story, Mr. Belcher, a Charleston alumnus who owns Pinnacle Environmental Consultants, is using his winning ticket as a prize in a raffle to raise money for the University of Charleston...

The Associated Press reports that Ohio lawmakers have shot down Miami University’s plan to buy more than 300 Aeron chairs at $522 apiece. The ergonomic Aeron chair, manufactured by Herman Miller, is something of a design status symbol. One can hear commercials for the chair on National Public Radio.

“The state Controlling Board voted 6-1 against what normally would be a routine request to the panel of lawmakers, who oversee state spending,” the AP story says. “Board members said Monday they were dissatisfied with the university architect’s explanation for why the chairs were necessary.”

The story also says that one Republican lawmaker reminded his colleagues that they were sitting in $2,000 leather chairs even as they opposed the purchase.

The Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader recently ran an article about South Dakota State University’s refusal to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, in part because the university relies heavily on its coal-fired heating plant. Coal might be dirty, but it’s also cheap. Switching to natural gas, which would reduce the amount of pollutants emitted, would cost the university up to $1-million, the newspaper says.

“They always say, ‘It’s not about the money,’ but it’s about the money,” David Chicoine, the university president, told the Argus Leader. “We don’t want to sign it, then not be able to meet the commitment.”

The article appears just as there is increasing buzz in Washington...

To be sure, the University of California at Berkeley faces some uncommon challenges when planning to carve up new land for building. You will recall the tree-sitting incident that delayed construction on an athletic-training center — a protest that ended last year.

Now a federal judge has blocked the university’s plan to build a $113-million, 126,000-square-foot computer research center after environmental groups sued to stop construction, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The environmental group, called Save Strawberry Canyon, argued that because...