Campus Buildings Receive Summer Renovations, Repairs

Other campus buildings received major renovations and conservation projects this summer:

High Rise Residence Hall received construction work on the second and third floors, fresh paint, elevator rope repairs and some remodeled kitchenettes and restrooms. Butterfield Residence Hall received a fire alarm installation, new common area carpet and an electrical upgrade. The Center for the Arts received a theater rigging replacement. Crowell Concert hall received an entry landing replacement.

Freeman Athletic Center and Davison Art Center received a roof replacement. PIMMS received new windows, exterior painting and vinyl siding. Russell House received a ceiling restoration and new lighting fixture to better illuminate the stair vestibule. The Vine Street Tennis Courts needed repairs and repainting. The courts will reopen at the start of the school year.

Physical Plant is undergoing its third round of conservation measures that the university has undertaken in the last five years.

“Through these programs and the efforts of the campus community as a whole, the university has already reduced its energy consumption by 22 percent,” says Peter Staye, associate director of utilities management. “A fourth round of conservation measures is currently in development.”

This project includes:

Insulating 13 buildings, which will save approximately $48,000 in annual energy costs and pay for themselves in less than three years;

Installing a water-side economizer on the chilled water system in the central power plant. This measure marks the completion of a five-year effort to redesign the chilled water system that services campus and will allow for the generation of chilled water during the early spring and late fall, which was not previously possible.  The benefit of this system will be realized next spring when the power plant is able to make chilled water during those unseasonably hot days in March and April, with profound impacts in buildings that do not have operable windows, like Exley, Hall Atwater and Usdan. It will cause a savings in electrical expense of about $14,000 annually.

Updating the lighting in CFA Theater, Fisk Hall and Olin to include occupancy sensors in Olin’s stacks and thesis carrels, and replacement of 120 theatrical lighting instruments in the CFA Theater. The new theater lighting instrunments will use 1/2 of the electricty consumed by the existing fixtures, and produce far more light with far better control. In sum these measures will reduce electrical consumption by $50,000 a year, and pay for themselves in 5 years.

These projects, in combination with other smaller measures are expected to reduce the universitys annual utilities costs by $380,000.  The project as a whole received a grant of $609,000 from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund.  Carbon emmisions are projected to decrease by 1,105 metric tons, Staye estimates.

A full list of major maintenance projects can be viewed online here.