(UWIRE) Stanford’s innovative Green Dorm project is slated to be designed in detail later this summer, after a two-year delay in fundraising.
“We essentially took two years longer to fundraise than we anticipated,” said Jonas Ketterle, student coordinator for the project. Ketterle partially attributed the delay to other campus construction.
“The University is in a big construction phase right now, and there are many larger projects,” he said, referring to the new Y2E2 building, Munger Graduate Residences, the Stanford Stadium renovations and the upcoming project for a new Graduate School of Business. “All of that takes priority.”
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Prof. Richard Luthy said the funding is now in place for design to begin.
“The good news is that most of the funding is in place to start detailed design, which should begin later this summer,” he said. “This would continue through part of the next academic year in order to continue student involvement.”
The original fundraising goal for the building was $12 million, but according to School of Engineering Senior Associate Dean Laura Breyfogle, “the faculty would also like to raise an additional $3 million to fund tech support and tech renewal in the dorm.”
The funding for the project, according to Ketterle, has come from a variety of University sources and private donors.
“The project has been met with considerable enthusiasm among donors and we are making good progress toward our funding goals” Breyfogle added.
Since the project is pioneered in large part by students, some have expressed concern about the consequences of leading students graduating.
“I’m graduating, but I’m sticking around for a master’s degree for another few years,” Ketterle said, “so I’ll probably be here to see the project through its completion. And others are still going to be on campus [too].”
Ketterle is joined in leading the project by Mike Linn, a recent graduate, as well as Jen Tobias ’08, Nick Enge ’09, who writes a column for The Daily, and Sam Ramirez ’10. The students, who said they invest a lot of time and energy into the project, were quick to note that the CEE department and many others have been helpful.
“It’s a collaborative effort,” Ketterle said. “There’s a Green Dorm Committee that has engineers, an architect, different consulting groups, different particulars system such as electrical or water or who knows what, [and] then there’s professors, there’s people from Stanford Facilities and Stanford Land Management or something like that, and a few students on board as well.”
Breyfogle echoed Ketterle’s comment.
“While the CEE Department has been a driving force for this project, the student and faculty interest is broad,” she said. “And there will be extensive outreach to other students and organizations on campus that care about sustainability.”
“It will be a place where those who care about sustainability – energy, water, structures, air quality – can experiment with new technologies and systems and measure the results both quantitatively and qualitatively,” she added.
Ketterle praised the diversity of minds invested in the project.
“There’s a lot of different perspectives and ideas flowing into the project,” he said, “which is something that makes this building somewhat unique.” Comments for “Green dorm faces delay” (2)