The main hall of the new Valley Performing Arts Center on California State University's Northridge campus seats 1,700. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller) Northridge, Calif. — If you don't live on this side of Los Angeles—that is, if you don't live in the San Fernando Valley, which stretches north and west of downtown—getting to Northridge can mean a hike through heavy traffic. But the trip is worth making to see the new, $125-million Valley Performing Arts Center on the California State University campus here. The building sparkles. Designed by HGA Architects & Engineers, the 166,000-square-foot facility has a 1,700-seat main hall and a black-box theater along with rehearsal space and the usual amenities—dressing rooms, costume facilities, and a set-construction shop. Also in the complex are classrooms, a 230-seat lecture hall—the campus's largest—and studios for the...

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According to a three-year "sustainability strategic plan" released on Monday, Yale University hopes to make its buildings greener, reduce its energy consumption, recycle more of its waste, persuade staff members and students to drive less, and take a number of other steps aimed at making the institution a leader in sustainability. The plan builds on Yale's commitment to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 43 percent below their 2005 levels by 2020.

Conceived by a task force comprising nine committees, the plan sets a number of goals for departments throughout the university. Among them:

• Design new buildings and renovation projects at least to LEED gold standards.
• Require all project managers and planners to earn certification as LEED green associates.
• Increase the university's recycling rate by 25 percent, and reduce the amount of solid waste sent to landfills by 25 percent.
• Cap the number ...

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency released $152,534,261.65 to the University of Iowa Wednesday to help replace buildings ruined by the flood that swept through the middle of the campus in June 2008. The money will go toward new homes for the Hancher Auditorium (left; Chronicle photograph) and the Voxman School of Music, as well as toward a new art building and the cost of eight temporary heating and air-conditioning units that sustained the campus while its damaged power plant was closed.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, announced the award in a news release.

Earlier this month the university chose the architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli to design a replacement for the 1972 auditorium, designed by Max Abramowitz. And Steven Holl Architects is working on plans for a new art building. The university plans to move the music school from its current location beside the...