Dartmouth's new science facility will emphasize green design

Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., is planning to build a new life sciences facility. The school says The Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center will be a national model of sustainable design, expected to consume one-half of the energy of the best-performing laboratories in use in the United States. At 174,500 square feet, the facility will have spaces devoted to undergraduate- and graduate-level teaching and research, including classrooms, teaching laboratories, and faculty laboratories, and offices for the department of biology. Among its notable features: a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse, a 200-seat auditorium, a two-story atrium for "science in sight" gallery displays, and a third-floor "sorghum and grasses green roof" to help keep the building cool. A storm-water management system will reuse 1 million gallons of rain water annually. Pending approval from the Hanover Planning Board, the foundation work will begin in November. Occupancy is planned for March 2010.

To read a Dartmouth news release on the project, click here.