Planners raise energy concerns

Author: Tom Brant, news editor

Energy efficiency and landscaping issues were the main topics of discussion at the second forum for the Master Plan on Monday in Dana Auditorium. Administrators and professional planners identified significant weaknesses with the College's infrastructure and grounds, and explained their strategies to make the campus more sustainable over the next five decades.

"We're trying to look into our crystal ball and predict what Middlebury will need in 50 years," said Susan Personette, associate vice president for Facilities.

The plan, whose chief architect is Boston firm Michael Dennis & Associates, outlines seven areas in which the campus needs to be improved, including everything from academic space planning to landscape design. According to Michael Dennis, landscape design and improving the aesthetics and functionality of the campus grounds are the first priorities.

"It's not the buildings that make the campus, it's the open spaces," he told the audience of about 75 people, almost none of whom were students.

The worst of the problems with landscaping come from the College's vast expanses of grass, which account for more than 100 acres of the 225-acre main campus, said Jose AlmiÒana, of Philadelphia-based Andropogon Associates, another firm working on the Master Plan. After collecting data on where campus activities take place, AlmiÒana's team found that the vast majority use either Battell Beach or the main quad between McCullough Student Center and Voter Hall, two of the grass-covered areas with the worst drainage on campus.

Besides the drainage problems, maintaining such a large area of pure grass is expensive and harmful to the environment, AlmiÒana said.

He proposed changing some 12 acres of lawn, mostly around McCardell Bicentennial Hall and Old Chapel Road, into wetlands and rain gardens, which are more suited to their location.

"Battell Beach and the main quad would remain lawns, but other areas, including the area behind BiHall, would be changed into meadows or wetland," he said.

To alleviate drainage problems on Battell Beach and the main quad, the soil quality will have to be improved, as well as the location and type of trees, according to AlmiÒana.

In addition to landscape issues, the other problem that occupied most of the forum's discussion was improvements to campus buildings, including the completion of Commons infrastructure.

Besides landscaping, the biggest problem to face the College over the next five decades is the rising cost of energy, according to Dennis. A renowned architect and an authority on American college landscaping, Dennis is also Professor of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He used his background to his advantage in calling on the audience to support the part of the Master Plan that calls for making buildings on campus more sustainable, including using alternative forms of energy to reduce costs and protect the environment

"Now I'm going to step into my MIT professor role and go on a rant," he said, taking off his coat and loosening his tie. "The most important thing you can do to make this campus sustainable is fix your buildings."

Dennis showed results of a recent energy audit that rated more than a dozen buildings as poor, the lowest category for energy efficiency.

"The worst-performing buildings in this audit were some of the College's most important buildings," he said, pointing to Painter Hall and Old Chapel on a campus map. "The world's oil supply is going to run out in the next 30 years, but we can't spend all that time doing nothing. We need to make our buildings more efficient today."

According to the audit, oil accounted for nearly 80 percent of the college's energy use and carbon emissions.

Dennis also expressed concern about the lack of students in the audience.

"As I look out into the audience today, all I see are people that look slightly used," he said. "Where are all the students? A Master Plan should be supported by the entire college community. If it's not, it probably won't be successful."