The tour of the first site, the 17,000 square-foot R.W. Kern Center, will be led by members of the project team (TBD). In the fall of 2015, Hampshire College broke ground on the Kern Center, its first new building in decades. Upon its completion, the Kern Center will be a multifunctional learning, teaching, and exhibition space; the point of entry for prospective students and their families into the Hampshire community; the location of the admissions and financial aid and new student programs offices. The Kern Center is planned for winter 2016 completion.

The tour of the second site, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, under construction, will be led by members of the project team (TBD). Within the new building, due for late spring 2016 completion, visitors will find three live 

exhibits, each focusing on a distinct New England habitat. The building itself will function as a living laboratory by providing real-time and historical performance metrics through a digital dashboard. Miles of trails and varied habitats - vernal pools, streams, woodlands, ponds, forests, meadows and wetlands - are immediately accessible by foot from the new building. The new 9,000 square-foot Hitchcock Center will be New England's first public environmental education center to meet the LBC's (version 2.1) twenty imperatives and 7 petals.

The event will conclude with an overview of LBC, and a Q&A-style panel of members from the project teams.

CEUs: 2.5 AIA LU/HSW, 2.5 GBCI (pending approval) and certificates of participation are available

Project Details:

Site 1: R.W. Kern Center

• Designed to meet the exacting standards of the Living Building Challenge

  

• Net-zero energy, waste, and water

• Will house the admissions office, financial aid, new student programs, a welcoming lobby for community members and visitors, a cafe, as well as multipurpose classroom and gallery space

Site 2: Hitchcock Center for the Environment

• 9,000 square-foot public environmental education center, the first in New England to  meet the LBC

• Will remediate an arsenic-contaminated site resulting from historical pesticide use on an apple orchard, in complying with the conditions of LBC

• Will supply 100% of the project's water needs through recaptured precipitation or other natural closed-loop water systems

• Will supply 100% of the project's energy needs through on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis, without the use of on-site combustion

Schedule: