2008 Woodie Awards
Environmental Center to be built on campus
Eric Woodard
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: News
The UCF Arboretum is planning for the construction of the university's first LEED Platinum building.
The Environmental Center is an auspicious assignment, considering that the university is committed to only a LEED Silver standard.
The Environmental Center, which will be primarily built of earth, reinforced concrete, glass and steel, is planning to house administrative offices, graduate classrooms, wet and dry laboratories, an auditorium, an herbarium and a library.
"The idea is to have a facility that we can actually house some of the partnerships that we've created through our sustainability program," said Alaina Bernard of the UCF Environmental Initiative.
Those partnerships include the Global Events Partners, Florida Solar Energy Center and Orange County.
"The only problem that not having a building creates is that there's not a centralized location for incoming students to go to," Bernard said. "We're all geographically isolated."
Currently, all the operations of the UCF Sustainability Alliance are dispersed throughout campus. Bernard said the Environmental Center could bring together all of the operations currently housed in the Arboretum, Millican Hall, Physical Plant and Research Park into one, "holistic" facility.
In terms of construction and materials, the Environmental Initiative wants environmentally efficient light fixtures, greywater recycling, an infrastructure of impermeable walls and photovoltaic solar panels.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site, photovoltaics converts light energy, usually solar energy, directly into electricity, all while producing no air pollution or hazardous waste.
"To be solar efficient, it's going to face southeast, which means it will get direct morning sun, but it won't have the afternoon heat gain," said Martin Quigley, director of the Environmental Initiative. "Its northwest side will be backed into a landscape berm so it will have no heat exposure to the west."
The Environmental Center is an auspicious assignment, considering that the university is committed to only a LEED Silver standard.
The Environmental Center, which will be primarily built of earth, reinforced concrete, glass and steel, is planning to house administrative offices, graduate classrooms, wet and dry laboratories, an auditorium, an herbarium and a library.
"The idea is to have a facility that we can actually house some of the partnerships that we've created through our sustainability program," said Alaina Bernard of the UCF Environmental Initiative.
Those partnerships include the Global Events Partners, Florida Solar Energy Center and Orange County.
"The only problem that not having a building creates is that there's not a centralized location for incoming students to go to," Bernard said. "We're all geographically isolated."
Currently, all the operations of the UCF Sustainability Alliance are dispersed throughout campus. Bernard said the Environmental Center could bring together all of the operations currently housed in the Arboretum, Millican Hall, Physical Plant and Research Park into one, "holistic" facility.
In terms of construction and materials, the Environmental Initiative wants environmentally efficient light fixtures, greywater recycling, an infrastructure of impermeable walls and photovoltaic solar panels.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site, photovoltaics converts light energy, usually solar energy, directly into electricity, all while producing no air pollution or hazardous waste.
"To be solar efficient, it's going to face southeast, which means it will get direct morning sun, but it won't have the afternoon heat gain," said Martin Quigley, director of the Environmental Initiative. "Its northwest side will be backed into a landscape berm so it will have no heat exposure to the west."