University studies environmentally friendly building design

Establishing environmentally friendly building design principles and identifying ways to use energy more wisely are taking root in classrooms and at construction sites around the UW–Madison campus.

Students are examining ways to bring sustainable designs into the community, while campus planners are finding more ways to use environmentally friendly practices during the campus’ biggest building boom since the 1960s.

For example, the new Microbial Sciences Building will have the university’s first designed “green roof.” The roof will help reduce stormwater runoff by installing plants and groundcovers in a lightweight soil that will soak up rainwater.

The new addition to Grainger Hall will make use of daylight to capture the sun’s rays, employ more aggressive energy-saving technology and the use of building materials with recycled content.

At existing buildings, officials are finding ways to tread more lightly on the environment.

The university has invested more than $29 million over several years on improving energy use, with more than 12 million square feet of buildings being audited for energy use. New energy management systems have been installed, and new plumbing and lighting fixtures, occupancy sensors and premium-efficiency motors have been installed.

“We have embraced an environmental ethic, one that is reflected in the way we do business on campus every day,” says Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities.

Graduate students (left to right) Tory Kress, Liz Robers and Bob Gollnik in an urban design and redevelopment workshop, taught by professor of urban and regional planning Jim LaGro (at rear) work in small groups to design an ideal green building site plan for a reconstructed Villager Mall. Their plans included planning an educational facility incorporating such features as public greenspace, a pedestrian mall, structured parking for rideshare commuters and improved stormwater management. Photos: Michael Forster Rothbart

Mark Nelson, assistant professor of interior design (left), talks at “Imagine This! Envisioning UW–Madison’s First Green Building.” Faculty and students collaborated on proposals for renovating or replacing Van Hise Hall and Bardeen Lab (foreground) with environmentally friendly buildings.

View, from left to right, of a stormwater retention pond, Nielsen Tennis Stadium, the Lot 76 parking ramp under construction and Rennebohm Hall of Pharmacy, as seen from the pedestrian bridge connecting Rennebohm and the Health Sciences Learning Center. The university is using green building principles to design new buildings, striving to minimize the environmental impact of growth. When completed, the Lot 76 ramp will include a stormwater infiltration bed to keep rainwater from washing into the nearby Class of 1918 Marsh or Lake Mendota. Across campus, the gradual replacement
of surface parking lots with parking structures will reduce the amount of paved impervious surface used for parking.

People study at tables positioned along a large bank of windows in the Ebling Library, within the Health Sciences Learning Center. The university has started using green building design principles, which strive to minimize the environmental impact of a building by incorporating features such as natural daylighting. Windows such as those in the new Health Sciences Learning Center improve energy efficiency by using the sun to help light and heat the building.