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NYU to Advance Green Building Projects Throughout System

School News — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 14:21:03 +0000

By Aziza Jackson

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York University (NYU) is moving forward with plans to advance sustainable construction and renovation projects throughout its university system.

Gerrard P. Bushell, Ph.D., president & CEO of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), recently announced that NYU issued $862.8 million in bonds through DASNY. The financing will be used in conjunction with previous financings to advance construction and renovation projects throughout the university system. The $862.8 million issued by DASNY on behalf of NYU was offered as $603.5 million in tax-exempt bonds and $259.3 million in taxable bonds.

The issuance includes more than $83 million in Green Bonds providing investors with the opportunity to directly support projects that NYU has identified as environmentally sustainable. Green Bond proceeds will go toward sustainable construction projects and equipment at NYU’s 181 Mercer Street, 370 Jay Street, and the Langone Health Science Building.

“We are excited to have the opportunity continue our long-standing partnership with New York University,” said Bushell. “In working to reduce the university system’s carbon footprint, we are creating more sustainable communities and helping support Gov. Cuomo’s vision for a cleaner, greener New York.”

The proceeds of the issuance will be used to pay for the construction and equipping of a mixed-use building at 181 Mercer Street, which will include dozens of new classrooms, spaces for performing arts education, training, and rehearsals, student and faculty housing, and a replacement sports and recreation facility. The construction will incorporate a variety of sustainable design features such as:

Connecting to the university’s high-efficiency, green-house gas and pollutant-lowering Co-Generation (CoGen) facility, which produces electricity, heat, and chilled water
Low-flow plumbing
Green roofs and outdoor terraces with low irrigation plants to help naturally cool the building, with a retention tank to manage rainwater runoff.

Other Green Bond-funded university system upgrades include:

Converting the facility at 370 Jay Street into an innovation hub for engineering, applied and urban sciences, and digital technology and media arts. Restoring the existing façade of the building using high-performance, energy efficient windows, and preserving the neighborhood’s aesthetic character, while significantly reducing the building’s energy footprint
Construction and equipping of the Langone Health Science Building, incorporating various green design strategies such as external glass louvers on the south façade to mitigate direct sun and glare, a light-colored roof and paving stones along with vegetated terraces to also reduce energy load and mitigate urban heat island effect, and high efficiency lab equipment.

NYU embraces sustainable building practices, with the vast majority of the 2019 transaction (tax-exempt and the taxable) slated to support green construction and renovation projects. Last year, NYU made a commitment that all new building construction earn LEED Silver designation at a minimum.

“NYU plans to be carbon neutral by 2040,” said Cecil Scheib, assistant vice president for Sustainability. “With DASNY’s support to make sustainable capital projects cost effective here in New York State, NYU can make the most of each construction opportunity.”

The remainder of the Series 2019 bonds financed other projects, including:

Upgrades to the university’s CoGen plant to improve energy-efficiency and accommodate increased electricity, heating, and cooling needs related to expansion, the Co-Gen plant substantially reduced NYU’s carbon footprint when it first came on line in 2011
Upgrades to infrastructure and renovations at 404 Lafayette Street and 708 Broadway
Improvements to academic facilities in Brooklyn for the Tandon School of Engineering
Renovations and equipping of space for use by the university’s Chemical Biology Department at the Silver Complex.

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UMass Dartmouth Breaks Ground on $134 Million Complex

School News — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 18:12:59 +0000

By Aziza Jackson

DARTMOUTH, Mass. — The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently broke ground on a $134 million housing and dining complex designed to transform the student living and learning experience on campus. The project will create 150 construction jobs and 400,000 people hours of work. The facilities will open when students arrive for classes in fall 2020.

The complex, which is being built in Parking Lot 7 near the university’s Campus Center and College of Visual and Performing Arts, will include a $108 million, 1,210-bed, 267,500-square-foot housing complex in two buildings. In addition to the actual living areas, the facilities will include general academic classrooms, multimedia and study lounges, demonstration kitchens, and recreation spaces. The buildings will also offer technology-equipped maker spaces where students will be able to work on group projects, soundproof music practice spaces, and two computer learning commons. Two faculty-in-residence apartments will foster mentoring and advising. The new housing will replace four residence halls that opened in 1976.

The new complex will also include a $26 million, 38,000-square-foot, student dining commons with a capacity of 800. The facility will be designed with a marketplace concept that will expand food options in response to students’ needs and expectations. The design will include a large flat top grill where students will be able to see their meals being prepared. The university’s current main dining hall was built in 1977 for a residential student population of 1,600 but now serves more than 3,000 students daily.

While the housing and dining complex is being built, work will also begin on a $54 million renovation of the Science and Engineering Building, supported by $25 million in state funds. Together, these projects represent the first phase of Chancellor Robert E. Johnson’s plan to focus capital investment on the 710-acre UMass Dartmouth main campus, which has seen just one major state-funded building project, the Claire T. Carney Library renovation, since 1980. Future initiatives include renovation and modernization of academic buildings, the campus center, road infrastructure, and athletic facilities.

“Our students and our region will benefit from these investments in quality living and learning facilities that will prepare them to succeed in a rapidly changing, highly competitive global economy,” said UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Robert E. Johnson. “I am thankful for the support that we are receiving from the Baker-Polito Administration, President Meehan and our Board of Trustees, and our SouthCoast Legislative delegation, as we pursue our aspirations through this innovative and collaborative strategy. When combined with our first-rate faculty, these facilities will guarantee our students the private college educational experience and public university value they so deserve.”

The residence halls will be built through a public-private partnership between the university and Greystar, one of the largest collegiate housing developers and managers in the country. The partnership will allow the building of the new housing without any state taxpayer funds and will not add to the debt burden for the university.

The project construction will be led by Suffolk, which has built nine residential facilities on campus, including the 800-bed Pine Dale and Oak Glen halls, which opened in 2003, and the 1,200-bed Woodland apartment complex, which opened in 2005.

The project is being financed via the UMass Building Authority and designed by DiMella Shaffer, which has been recognized by ARCHITECT magazine as one of the “Top 50 Firms in Sustainability.”

“Through this public-private partnership, and our partners at Greystar and Suffolk, we’re transforming spaces where UMass Dartmouth students will live, learn, eat, and play,” said Randy Kreie, principal and president of DiMella Shaffer. “Our team has worked in collaboration with the university from the beginning and we are excited to deliver a facility that will meet the unique needs of their students and faculty for decades to come.”

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Sandy Hook School to be Demolished

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The Sandy Hook Task Force unanimously voted to tear down the current school building and rebuild at the same site where 26 children and staff were shot and killed last December.
In the fifth and final meeting of the 28-member committee of elected officials, the task force made the recommendation to the Newtown Board of Education to demolish Sandy Hook Elementary School, which has been closed since the tragedies of Dec. 14, 2012, and construct a new school building that could cost $57 million. However, a town vote will ultimately decide how to proceed with the building and where Sandy Hook students will continue their education.
“It looks like we’re just talking about sites and building, but really what we’re talking about is working through the trauma the community has faced,” said Rich Harwood, mediator of the discussion.
Emotions ran high in the May 10 meeting. Teachers and parents of Sandy Hook acknowledged that, though the heartbreak would never fully recede, the community was responsible for moving forward and banding together to bring new hope to Sandy Hook students.
The team of community leaders evaluated about 40 options, including potential plans to renovate the existing building and build at a new site, but the task force opted to start anew without forgetting the positive aspects of Sandy Hook’s history.
“For many, many years, this place was used as a place for learning, happiness and growth, and I would hate for that land to become any different than what its intended use was for originally,” said Debbie Leidlein, Newtown Board of Education chair and member of the Sandy Hook task force. “I’d like to see it return to that function in our community.”
The task force acknowledged that whatever decision they made, someone would be unhappy. Peter Barresi, father of a first grader at Sandy Hook, had hoped the committee would maintain the Sandy Hook building.
“We didn’t just lose 20 children and six adults,” he said. “We’re letting him [the gunman] take the building, too.”
The school’s 430 students are currently attending class at the former Chalk Hill Middle School in neighboring Monroe, Conn. Renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School, the once-vacant building has been used as the interim school since the shooting.
Though aggravated that the original building may be demolished, Barresi also said continuing to hold instruction at Chalk Hill is not an adequate option for elementary education.
“I can’t help but think the most important people in this entire decision is our children and that they are sitting in a school that’s not designed for them,” he said. “That has to be inhibiting their learning.”
On the day of the shooting, Newtown resident and former psychologist Gene Rosen found six young children who had witnessed the violence on his lawn. But rather than retell the brutality of that December morning, Rosen spoke of another Sandy Hook memory.
Earlier in 2012, Rosen had walked to the school with his grandson. He snapped a picture of a bluebird perched on a Sandy Hook tree. Now, he said, every time he is thanked for his compassion, he gives that person a picture of the bluebird. To Rosen, the rebuilding of Sandy Hook is a symbol of reviving hope once lost.
“I want to reciprocate and so I give this bluebird that represents hope and resilience and strength. The return of the bluebirds,” he said. “I bring that up because I think this has been a mostly positive, wonderful gathering of people and gathering of spirit.”
Connecticut Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal as well as Representative Elizabeth Etsy have called on Congress to use federal funds to help build the new elementary school. With the opportunity to supply a new school to the community of Newtown, Murphy and Blumenthal said, senators now have a chance to redeem themselves after failing to pass a bill that would expand background checks to gun purchasers.
The bill is an opportunity for lawmakers to “put their money where their mouth is,” Blumenthal said in a statement, adding that legislators of both political parties have asked what they can do to help the situation in Newtown.
“For those of my colleagues who asked me this but failed to vote for common sense gun violence prevention measures in March, this bill gives them the opportunity to make a down payment – not a full payment – but a down payment on their obligation to respond adequately to the Sandy Hook horror,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Students at Sandy Hook Elementary School should not be forced to relive this tragedy in a schoolhouse marred with slaughter.”
The legislation proposed would allow schools to apply for funding through the expansion of the School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) grant for construction on sites that have witnessed mass tragedies. SERV grants are issued to communities after traumatic violent events and funds are often used for mental health counseling.
“This tragedy has touched people on a national scale, and as a nation, we have an obligation to make sure that this community and that the children who attend Sandy Hook Elementary have the support they need to heal and continue their lives,” Blumenthal said in a statement.
For the community of Newtown, the remembrance of love at the Sandy Hook site will ultimately prevail over its tragedies.
“I think our message should be at that site that love will win over fear,” said Steve Uhde, father to a Sandy Hook second grader. “We can make that site love again.”

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