 "Photo:")
Plans are underway to construct the first "green" building on Texas Tech's campus.
The U.S. Green Building Council will certify the new Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration building as environmentally friendly using guidelines of the registered-project checklist of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, known as LEED.
Tech officials hired a LEED-accredited professional, Hugh Cronin, to help design the university's new building, expected to be completed by fall 2011.
Cronin, the project manager of Broaddus & Associates, was hired to manage the project and said there are some benefits to green buildings.
"Well, it's the future," Cronin said. "I mean, if we can reduce the amount of stuff we put in a landfill, it causes less of a problem down the road for your children, for my children's children, that they have to deal with and that's really in a nutshell what it is - is how do we plan for somebody else's future without giving them the same problems or just passing them on down the road?"
He said between 10 and 20 percent of materials such as carpet, wall coverings and upholstery to be used in the new building will come from recycled materials.
Contractors will use materials such as paint and adhesives with low emissions, he said.
A formal recycling program in the new building is another green standard on the checklist available on the council's Web site, Cronin said, which will provide students an opportunity to practice green standards.
Even custodians in the new building will contribute to green standards, he said.
"We're working with them right now to make sure that they use green-friendly products," Cronin said, "so that any of the materials that get washed down the drain from a mop bucket or from a cleaning pail are friendly to the environment and aren't a further burden on our wastewater systems."
The new building will be located where Thompson and Gaston halls are being demolished.
The building will cost about $70 million, said Allen McInnes, dean of the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business. The money will come from sources such as facility and maintenance funds from the state, Tech's revenue bonds, corporations such as Valero Energy and Plains Capital Bank, and various foundations and individuals.
McInnes said he visited business buildings at several universities in the planning process.
"You know, there's a lot of things going on in the building business," he said. "So, in a way, we're sort of looking at what the competition's doing."
McInnes said although the Tech Board of Regents wanted a new Business Administration building before he was hired in 2001, the idea to make it green was his idea.
"I had been reading all across the state on higher education," McInnes said, "and no one was doing much here in the state on building a green building, and so I thought that was something we ought to do."
Kristen Allen, a sophomore international business major from Tolar, said she thinks the new building will be a benefit for freshmen.
"I think because we're focusing a lot on making things green," Allen said, "I think that the incoming freshmen will see that as important so I think that will help draw people toward maybe the business college. It definitely sets a precedent for whenever we make more buildings, so it's a great thing."
McInnes said the possibility exists for more green buildings if the goal of this project is accomplished: completing the building within budget.
About 40 percent of the current business administration building is occupied by faculty and classes from other colleges, McInnes said.
"It's not unusual to find math courses here, and one of our problems is we'll have a drama course next to one of our others," he said, "and they'll be practicing their drama course out in the hallway and whatnot. So we hope that we get one almost dedicated to business."
The current building will be renovated after the new building is finished, McInnes said. Any extra offices or classrooms in the current building will be used by other colleges that need extra space, such as the architecture college.
"I think as a university in the state of Texas," he said, "we will be able to point proudly to that fact that we're doing our share in terms of having buildings that have a minimum impact on the environment."
Be the first to comment on this article!