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Rise in Tornadoes, Floods Poses Risk to Colleges
What if the sort of extreme weather that has left the University of Iowa inundated in floodwaters is not a freak event? What if it is a sign of things to come? (Photograph by AP Images)
Art & Architecture Renovations Near Completion at Yale U.
Paul Rudolph's 1963 Brutalist icon is getting a makeover, plus an addition by Charles Gwathmey.
Guest Blogger: Anne Stephenson
Even the greenest construction project increases a college’s carbon footprint.
Other News
Land-Rich Universities Weigh New Options for Real-Estate Development
Universities are taking advantage of new ways to develop their holdings through corporate partnerships, a new report says.
U. of Iowa Begins Mucking Out and Assessing the Damage
The university's insurer spent the weekend starting to assess the damage to the auditorium and 19 other flooded buildings.
U. of Iowa Flooding Takes Costly Toll in Research and Equipment
Parking lots are under water, some roads leading to the campus are closed, and the campus utility infrastructure is damaged.
New campus buildings
Multimedia
A Green Building as a Billboard for Science
(A 2006 Chronicle video)
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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.
A Museum Addition at Kansas State U., Cast in Concrete, Lets in Spirits
Kansas State U.‘s Beach Museum of Art, designed by Andersson-Wise Architects (Photographs courtesy of Andersson-Wise Architects)
Andersson-Wise Archtiects of Austin, Tex., recently finished an addition to the Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. For Arthur Andersson, the addition was an opportunity to add to his original design for the museum, which had been completed in 1996.
 A gallery with the “spirit window” |
The museum called for a design with pitched roofs and local limestone walls.
The addition incorporates a good deal of concrete in curving and angular shapes that guide visitors into the museum. The impressions from the form ties are still evident in the walls. Mr. Andersson says he likes the simple aesthetic and the unparalleled durability of concrete. The 17,000-square-foot addition cost $6.5-million, all of which came from private donations.
For someone who likes working with natural light, designing the gallery space was a bit constraining, Mr. Andersson says. The clients wanted no windows in the gallery areas, to control light — particularly damaging ultra-violet light — that could hit the artwork.
He complied with the design constraints, for the most part. In one gallery, Mr. Andersson added what he calls a “spirit window” — a tiny window in one corner of the gallery. It’s a reference to the “spirit line,” or gap, that Navajo weavers put in the borders of their rugs to allow spirits to pass through. —Scott Carlson
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