Buildings Open at Denison U., Ithaca College, and Texas A&M U. at College Station

Ithaca College dedicated a new administration building designed to earn LEED platinum certification. (Ithaca College photo)

Ithaca College has dedicated a new $22.5-million administration building constructed to save energy and rely for water mostly on what it will collect from its own roof. The 58,000-square-foot building, the Peggy Ryan Williams Center, was designed by Holt Architects with a number of sustainable features, including operable windows, about 6,500 square feet of vegetated roof, a natural-convection ventilation system, sensors that adjust electric light and mechanical systems based on levels of occupancy, and a 12,000-gallon tank for storing rainwater, which is expected to supply about 85 percent of the building’s annual water needs. But as The Chronicle‘s Scott Carlson noted in an article this summer, the building’s occupants will have to become its partners to achieve the highest possible levels of sustainability.

Texas A&M University at College Station has opened a 220,000-square-foot, $100-million Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (left; Texas A&M U. photo), designed by Perkins + Will. The building has 95,000 square feet of modular laboratory space that can be configured as needed, and that is expected to house about 30 labs. In addition, it houses lab-support facilities, offices, classrooms, seminar rooms, and a 285-seat auditorium. It will accommodate biologists, chemists, psychologists, computer scientists, statisticians, and other researchers. The three-story building, constructed in the center of the university’s campus, is expected to earn LEED silver certification. 

By renovating and expanding a building constructed in 1904 as a men’s gymnasium, Denison University has created a new facility, the Bryant Arts Center, to bring together studio-arts and art-history programs that had been scattered around its campus. The $14-million, 45,000-square-foot project, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, included construction of a 15,000-square-foot addition above an existing base (left; Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners photo). Besides studios for students and faculty members, the building houses classrooms, galleries, a common area for studio art seniors, and a four-story atrium intended to provide both light and circulation.