UMass Magazine Online

Summer 2003

Departments

Around the Pond

Features

The Vast Area of Small

Tiny couch potatoes

Pumped-up Roosters

The pervasive presence of microbes

At-risk Native Talk

Our giant in hedge funds

Around the Pond

It's not just about cuts

– Matthew Despres ’03




	Architect Sigrid Miller Pollin (photo by Ben Barnhart)

A PUSH FOR INCREASED RELIABILITY and aesthetic quality across the UMass Amherst campus launched several new construction initiatives this year, among them: a streamlined central heating plant; a computer science and engineering complex; and Gordon Hall, the new home of the Political Economy Research Institute.

CENTRAL HEATING PLANT The current heating plant, which provides most buildings and dormitories on campus with steam heat, will give way to a new plant at the north end of Mullins Way, slated to open in 2006. It will burn natural gas and fuel oil in four new boilers and will produce electricity as a by-product of making steam.

“Fires that broke out in the existing plant this past winter highlight the urgent need to build a new, central heating plant,” says John Mathews, assistant director for campus infrastructure projects. “As the existing plant ages, the reliability of its older steam boilers diminish.”

The new system, adds Mathews, is not only safer, but also cleaner. Air emissions, particularly greenhouse gases, will be less than from the existing plant, he says, and sulfur dioxides that can cause acid rain will be nearly eliminated.

ENGINEERING LAB II With an anticipated completion date of December, the lab, just south of the Computer Science Building, will be a 60,000-square-foot facility providing research laboratories for the chemical engineering and civil and environmental engineering departments. The building will also include a 45-seat distance learning center and a 195-seat auditorium.

GORDON HALL Tucked away just off-campus at 418 North Pleasant St., Gordon Hall will house the UMass legal studies department and the Labor Relations and Research Center. Designed by architect and UMass Art Professor Sigrid Miller Pollin, the center will serve both as an efficient space for quiet research and as a piece of irregular art.

Pollin says she wanted to “create a focal space that brings natural light into the heart of the building in all seasons – especially in the winter months.” She saw it as an opportunity to create architecture near the campus where she teaches architectural and interior design, while also creating a place for scholars to come together to conduct research, write and hold conferences.

Pollin began designs for Gordon Hall three years ago, using different concepts until she settled on the one she felt best used the land’s unique contours. She hopes the V-shaped slice of space in the middle will make people feel that “the barriers between inside and outside have been dissolved.”

[top of page]

A May Day celebration

Du Bois: Larger image

Digging for answers at Du Bois' home

Digging: More images

Budget Update

It's not just about cuts

Pollin: Larger image

Let's hear it for the class of 2003!

Let's Hear it: More images

Make my day

Make my day: Larger image