October 30, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Construction will begin in November on a new building for Western Kentucky University’s
College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.
A & K Construction of Paducah submitted a bid of $22,647,000 and will serve as general contractor for the facility’s construction. RossTarrant Architects of Lexington is the project architect.
“A&K Construction’s commitment and attention to detail and their craftsmanship and quality of work will be important during construction of a signature building for WKU,” said Dr. Sam Evans, dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.
The three-story, 120,000-square foot building at Normal Drive and Regents Avenue will replace Tate Page Hall. Construction is expected to be complete in about two years.
“We’re pleased that bids came in well within the construction scope for our $35 million state-funded project,” said John Osborne, vice president for Campus Services and Facilities.
The building will include classrooms, administrative offices and faculty offices, an Educational Resource Center, Technology Center, research laboratories, and clinical space for literacy, psychology and counseling.
About 200 employees (including full-time faculty, staff, graduate assistants, part-time faculty) will work in the new building. About 3,000 students are served by the college’s academic programs, including WKU’s largest undergraduate program, elementary education.
“Our faculty, staff and students are eagerly looking forward to the completion of this facility,” Dr. Evans said.
The facility will be one of the first at a public university in Kentucky to strive for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which is a rating system that measures sustainable design features.
“This project gives our college an opportunity to move the sustainability concept forward at WKU in a positive way,” Dr. Evans said. “We hope this project will help foster a greater awareness of the importance of using our environment in a responsible manner and provide an educational environment for promoting sustainability across campus.”
LEED, an industry standard rating system for construction developed by the United States Green Building Council, is a system that measures the effectiveness of a building’s sustainable design features and is widely recognized as a standard of how green a building is, according to Jeffrey C. Stivers, AIA, principal for RossTarrant Architects.
Sustainable design is important because buildings have a substantial impact on the environment, which is becoming evident in increased energy costs, dwindling natural resources and a declining natural environment, Stivers said. According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), in the United States alone, buildings account for 12 percent of potable water consumption, 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, 30 percent of raw material use, 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually), 36 percent of total energy use and 70 percent of electricity consumption.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact John Osborne at (270) 745-5747 or Sam Evans at (270) 745-4664.
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