Follow the yellow brick road?
That's what administrators at St. Louis Community College's Wildwood campus hope students will do — right to the parking lot plug-ins for their electric cars. The plug-ins are built into the base of 20 light standards found on the parking lot, allowing drivers of electric-powered vehicles to recharge their batteries while at class.
We talk about sustainability and green issues a lot in this magazine, but this one is so green it appears to be straight out of The Wizard of Oz' Emerald City.
The plug-ins are one of several eco-friendly features at SLCC-Wildwood, the first green college campus in Missouri and the largest college in the Midwest seeking LEED certification. Wm. B. Ittner is the architect for the $24 million facility, which joins the other three campuses in the SLCC system. Other green features include rainwater cisterns for irrigation; artificial lighting that automatically balances to manage variations in natural light; a sedum roof that overcomes the “heat island” effect; and ceiling fans that enhance ventilation.
Speaking of innovation, the issue in your hands is one you must keep all year-round as you plan new projects. One criterion the jury was looking for as it determined citations was innovation, and they found it in the two main winners.
The Crow Island School Citation went to Maplewood Richmond Heights High School, St. Louis. The project, designed by TR,i Architects, started out with student and teacher “wish lists,” and brought an outdated facility into the 21st century. Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., won the Collegiate Citation. Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, LLC, conceived this library as the first step toward developing a campus intellectual and social center. It was designed to meet a LEED silver rating. Read more about them on pages 16-19.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the jury for its service and great care in selecting the innovators found in this issue. To Martin Montaño, Ted Staniewicz and Greg Spitzer, thanks again for taking time out to share your expertise.
WEB 101
Take a look
Looking for elementary schools in Illinois? We've got 34.
Looking for post-secondary projects in Texas? I found 75.
Looking for your school? It just might be there.
Where, you ask? Right on your computer at www.SchoolDesigns.com. If you haven't visited the site lately, you are missing a great resource. It's packed with projects, plans and photos that have filled the pages of our competitions over the past nine years.
You can search by all sorts of criteria, from project state, to type of project, to a specific competition year. In addition, you can search for architects from all over the country.
— Susan Lustig
