 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Green Building, Red Tape
Some colleges have decided to build sustainably but skip costly LEED certification. (Photo courtesy Northern Arizona U.)
Princeton Review Will Issue 'Green' Ratings in Coming College Guide
Guest Blogger: Lawrence Speck
Why you should avoid slavish devotion to a single style
Other News
Jahn's Library Dome at U. of Chicago: Elegant Minimalism or Self-Indulgent Object?
Anticipation Builds for U. of Louisville Health Research Facility
In California, Millions Are Distributed for Stem-Cell Research
New campus buildings
Multimedia
Modernism in Albany
(An audio slide show)
Subscribe
Subscribe to Buildings & Grounds in a feed reader.
Get the Buildings & Grounds widget for Facebook, Myspace, or your own blog.
About Buildings & Grounds
Buildings & Grounds is written by Scott Carlson (left) and Lawrence Biemiller (right). Scott Carlson writes about architecture, facilties, energy, and sustainability, among other topics. Lawrence Biemiller writes about architecture and facilities and contributes to Notes from Academe. What's happening on your campus? Let us know.
At Pitzer College, Cinder Block Gives Way to Swimming Pool
Pitzer College wrapped its new dormitory complex around an existing campus center and swimming pool (Pitzer College images).
Claremont, Calif. — Pitzer College’s new, 318-bed residence-hall complex is designed to achieve a gold rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program—an ambitious goal, to say the least. But its sustainable features aren’t what you notice first on a visit. What you notice first is how neatly the complex wraps around an older swimming pool and student center that are set amid attractive landscaping. Compared with Pitzer’s original cinder-block dormitories, built in the 1960s, the new complex is a luxury resort.
Adding to the resortlike feeling are Dutch doors that open from students’ rooms onto the balconies from which they are entered. Students can close their doors entirely, or, if they’re feeling sociable, leave the top halves open. The balconies, which are intended to serve both social and circulation functions, have bench seating opposite each pair of doors.
Jim Marchant, dean of students, says Pitzer wanted rooms in the new complex to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that students hole up there. Besides the balconies, students can socialize on the complex’s patios and in its living rooms—to say nothing of the pool and adjoining cafe. Students’ rooms have windows on both sides, allowing cross-ventilation, but sensors turn off the air conditioning if the windows are open. “We try to discourage students from using the air conditioning” when it’s not needed, Mr. Marchant says. Most of the rooms are set up to house two students, with each pair of double rooms sharing a bathroom.
The complex, which opened in September and cost Pitzer $29-million, was designed by Carrier Johnson and located according to a campus master plan by Sasaki Associates. Among the complex’s sustainable features, Mr. Marchant says, are recycled steel framing, recycled plastic patio furniture, recyclable carpeting, and, on one building’s roof, photovoltaic panels. (The other buildings’ roofs slope in a direction that doesn’t catch the necessary sunlight.)
About 80 percent of the construction materials came from within 200 miles of Claremont, the dean says. The complex also has an extra-efficient heating system, large enough that it will also serve two additional residence halls that the college plans to put up just north of the new complex. The courtyard formed by the new buildings was landscaped with plants that won’t need irrigation, and stormwater-retention areas prevent runoff from coursing wildly down Claremont’s sloping streets.
The complex has four apartments for faculty members. On the lower levels, which have the only inside corridors, are the college’s admissions offices as well as a handful of faculty offices and music-practice rooms and some gallery space. A loaner-bike facility will replace the student center’s original loading dock, Mr. Marchant says; deliveries for the center will be brought in elsewhere.
Demolition of one of the college’s old dormitory buildings is scheduled to take place next summer. The college did look at renovation instead, Mr. Marchant says, but that would have required costly asbestos abatement and seismic retrofitting. Pitzer hopes to be able to recycle material from the building when it is demolished.—Lawrence Biemiller
A detail drawing of a building in the new complex shows student rooms opening onto balconies.
Previous: An Architecture Award Asks: Is It Livable?
Next: Pictures of the Planned Redevelopment Around Boston College