MIT Dorm Achieves LEED-Gold Sustainability Benchmark

A new MIT dorm on Pacific Street on C-port's east side officially received Gold-level designation under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system. The architect of the "new" Ashdown House was William Rawn Associates, who has been feeling a lot of Cambridge love from another recent project, the Cambridge Main Library addition.

Details on the building's green strategies, from the Chronicle:

Ashdown House, a graduate residence that houses more than 400 students and includes a full dining area, earned its Gold rating for a variety of green features: The building’s landscaping and irrigation systems use water from a non-potable source; a storm-water management system significantly reduces storm-water runoff; maximized daylight is available in 95 percent of regularly occupied spaces; and low-flow fixtures reduce water use by more than 20 percent. What’s more, care was taken to make the construction of Ashdown House as low-impact as possible: More than 10 percent of its materials included recycled content; more than 75 percent of the waste from the construction was recycled; and the building uses low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) -emitting paints, sealants and carpets.

Photo courtesy MIT.

No Love for MIT's Campus

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chororos/3840636901/
Originally uploaded by James Chororos

Noted author and urbanist James Howard Kunstler has some harsh words in his podcast this week about MIT, saying the campus "has got to be the ugliest academic neighborhood in America."

He goes on: "Is it because science-oriented people or engineer types have no interest whatsoever in in their surroundings?" he wonders. "You couldn't have designed an uglier campus if you'd invited the devil to run the design team. Everything they've done lately... even these new Frank Gehry buildings and Steven Holl buildings, you know, the "starchitect" buildings, have done nothing to make it any better."

While I think he gives no credit at all to the beautiful Beaux Arts Bosworth campus, the conversation has an interesting take on the race betweem elite institutions to create "wacky buildings."

A more substantive discussion follows about the design issues with the Rose Kennedy Greenway and why Boston is one of the "healthiest cities in America."