Environmental Studies breaks ground today

New facility to be completed by the year 2000

Oberlin students have an opportunity to see a dream finally become reality.

Today at 4:30 p.m. on Harkness Bowl, 250 guests as well as members of the College and the community will watch the first spades of dirt removed to make room for the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies.

Environmental Studies Professor David Orr thinks the Environmental Science Building (ESC) is a step in the right direction for Environmental Science. "The building is just a means. The goal is to revise how we think about sustainability," he said.

Sustainable living is the ecological term for using less-less energy, less waste, less man-made material. Sustainability looks beyond sustainable living to producing every item necessary for comfortable life.

"The Lewis Building represents a fundamental shift that goes beyond sustainability," said center architect William McDonough. "This is a great event."

Orr said to look for the finished Environmental Science Center (ESC) in late fall 1999. "We had a late construction start," Orr said. "If construction could have started before winter, we would have been finished by the time you come to school next year."

The Center will include classrooms, an auditorium and a library in addition to its sustainable and regenerative properties. ECS blurs the division between indoors and outdoors. The inside will be naturally lit and ventilated. It will include a two-story atrium that will provide Oberlin with a winter garden. The near legendary "Living Machine" will replace the chemical treatment of waste water with environmental technology. A man-made pond and wetlands will also serve as a cleaning mechanism for water that collects in the immediate area on roads and parking lots.

"The technology designed into ESC is not revolutionary," said McDonough. "However, the integration of all of these concepts into one building is a novelty. Imagine buildings that produce their own oxygen, distill water, accrue solar energy, change with the seasons, and produce no waste."

"The entire center is a learning environment, not just the classrooms," said Orr.

ESC will continue to grow in ecological awareness throughout the years. "It has been designed to evolve to make room for technology advances," he said.

McDonough quoted the recently deceased John Lyle, one of the architects who worked on the project, who called the Lewis Center"a regenerative building." Lyle once said, "It gives more than it takes." The ESC will produce its electricity through photovoltaic cells and the design of the building provides adequate shade in the summer while allowing winter heat gain.

McDonough's interest in ecologically-minded buildings comes from early childhood. He was born in Japan and lived most of his childhood in Hong Kong. "We had four hours of water every fourth day," he said. "People died of cholera on my doorstep."

These experiences drove McDonough to think twice about the relationship Americans have with resources.

McDonough said, "There is no reason that the buildings in which we live can't function like trees. ESC will accrue solar income to the benefit of living systems and absorb water quickly and release it slowly in a healthy state."

As for the future of buildings of this type, McDonough said, "Even mainstream buildings are already using these elements when they are designed."

Adam Joseph Lewis, for whom the building is named, is a young philanthropist whose activities have focused on holistic health, care of the environment and international health, education and ecological issues. His initial $1 million contribution for the building was the cornerstone for additional philanthropy. The total family commitment totals $3.25 million.

"For many years I have searched for examples of where one can give as much to his environment as one takes," said Lewis. "This center is a paragon of environmental design. I am so pleased to support the center, and more pleased that we all will continue to learn from it."

As for the financial aspect of the center, its total budget comes to $6.6 million, said Orr. "We have virtually all the money we need in hand."

Orr cites the center as a plan to bring Oberlin students back to teaching and participating in internships. The state of the art facilities should encourage Oberlin graduates to further their work in environmental science.

Adam Joesph Lewis environmental studies center: The new 14,000 square foot Environmental Science Center will include a living machine, green houses, an atrium and a pond.The center will provide state-of-the-art pedagocial and research tools for environmental studies. (photo courtesy Office of College Relations)