If you were an attention-seeker, you might think that the spectacular curved span of glass on a new building at Ithaca College is facing the wrong direction. It looks away from a drive that winds from the campus’s main entrance and away from Cayuga Lake, Cornell University, and the city of Ithaca. This is not exactly a strategy for flaunting your assets.
But it does face south. So it is perfectly oriented to pick up sunlight to illuminate and warm the building. When the building opens, in January, almost all of the space inside will be illuminated with natural light.
The building is one of two new sustainable structures now under construction at Ithaca College, both situated near the main entrance. Interestingly, the buildings are not associated with the environmental-studies or biology programs. The glassy building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, is for the business school and will cost $18-million. The other green structure, which exists only as a cleared space at the moment, will be a $21-million administration building designed by HOLT Architects.
After these projects are complete, Ithaca College will be among the first colleges, if not the first, to have two buildings on its campus rated at “platinum” under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Platinum is the highest of the ratings, which are awarded through a point system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council. Builders earn points for installing various environmental and energy-efficiency features.
“The point of these two buildings was to show that you can do it without a whole lot of bells and whistles,” said Peter W. Bardaglio, a former provost, as he stood near the construction site of the business building on a recent afternoon. Designing the building to conform with platinum LEED standards made it cost about 4 percent to 5 percent more than it otherwise would have, he said, but the college expects to recoup those expenditures in energy savings within five years. Mr. Bardaglio recently left to work for Second Nature, a group that promotes sustainability in higher education.
The materials in the business building might be conventional, but their arrangement is not. For example, insulation installed just beneath the exterior panels, in addition to insulation within the wall, will help buffer the building against outside temperatures and prevent condensation within the structure. “There are so many things to learn,” said Dave Geiger, foreman for one of the contractors working on the building. “I’ve been in the business for 40 years, and I’ve never put insulation on the outside of a building before. But it makes sense.”
“When I first heard this project was going to be LEED platinum, I was a little scared” of the paperwork and certification involved, said Sean Cahill, project manager. But now he is visibly excited about working on the building. “This is going to be a signature project for the college.”
Using Daylight
Ithaca’s business school has a new focus on sustainability. Mr. Bardaglio said he raised money for the building by telling donors that it was a teaching opportunity in brick and mortar. “Student ambassadors,” as Mr. Bardaglio called them, will give tours to show off the green features.
A recent tour of the building — even in an unfinished state, with missing windows, exposed ductwork, and rough concrete floors — revealed a spacious and open plan. The designers used computer models to track the sun’s movement and oriented the building to take as much advantage of daylight as possible. Sensors in the rooms will measure ambient light and movement, and then use that information to control the lights. Part of the building is covered in a “green” roof, to be planted in drought-tolerant plants, and a 6,000-gallon cistern has been sunk into the ground to collect rainwater for use in the building. Much of the construction material comes from within 500 miles of the site.
Ducts have been sealed until construction is completed, to keep contaminants from getting into them. Trash bins outside collect wood, metal, and other garbage in separate bins for recycling. With 70 percent of the construction done, 96 percent of the project’s waste has been kept out of landfills.
Mr. Cahill, the project manager, is curious to see how some green elements will perform. As one example, he pointed to the air ducts above him. They do not have the conventional acoustical lining, he said. That lining cuts down on noise that travels from room to room, but it also collects dust and becomes a medium for mold. Theoretically, he said, the way the ducts curve through the walls should stop people from hearing the conversations next door.
Mr. Bardaglio grinned. “Someone should tell the junior faculty: Sound travels.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 54, Issue 9, Page A32
