Union South's 'Green' Redesign A Teaching Tool
Updated: 3:29 pm CDT March 21, 2009
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Going Green Wisconsin
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Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000Tom Landgraf teaches a real estate class with a focus on sustainable green development at UW-Madison. Recently a former student of his, Dan Cornelius, Wisconsin Union vice president for project management and also a UW law student getting his MA in environment and resources, came to speak to Landgraf's class about the Union South redevelopment. In lieu of a conventional lesson plan, the class will complete projects to benefit Union South's redesign."If the class must work on a project, why not make it project about something they live with, like a major student building on campus?" asks Landgraf.Students will work in groups and Landgraf suspects they'll work on ways to gather materials like Wisconsin timber, brainstorm ideas for a green roof, or develop a source manual on how to obtain materials available within five hundred miles of Madison for the university's future building projects."From a learning experience [the students] figure out how much they want to deliver, which will be a lot, and how they can actually do it. For this project, and for all building projects, you measure what it is you're going to commit to and do so in a way that you can deliver a really great job on it," explains Landgraf. "It's worth their final grade after all."UW students voted in fall 2006 to pay for the majority of the Union South reconstruction (about 60 percent) through their segregated fees. Part of that vote hinged on the idea of sustainable technologies, a promise made to the students by the design team."The design process has been led by students since day one--the design committee is made up of fifteen members, nine of whom are students, and will continue to be until the building is finished in spring 2011," says Cornelius.To fulfill that promise, the design team brought in the Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading international sustainability consulting firm, to do workshops about building priorities. They also brought in the Madison Environmental Group Sustainability Consultants, Moody Nolan Architects out of Ohio, CG Schmidt Construction and Workshop Architects to help achieve these goals.To continue reading, visit MadisonMagazine.com.
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000Tom Landgraf teaches a real estate class with a focus on sustainable green development at UW-Madison. Recently a former student of his, Dan Cornelius, Wisconsin Union vice president for project management and also a UW law student getting his MA in environment and resources, came to speak to Landgraf's class about the Union South redevelopment. In lieu of a conventional lesson plan, the class will complete projects to benefit Union South's redesign."If the class must work on a project, why not make it project about something they live with, like a major student building on campus?" asks Landgraf.Students will work in groups and Landgraf suspects they'll work on ways to gather materials like Wisconsin timber, brainstorm ideas for a green roof, or develop a source manual on how to obtain materials available within five hundred miles of Madison for the university's future building projects."From a learning experience [the students] figure out how much they want to deliver, which will be a lot, and how they can actually do it. For this project, and for all building projects, you measure what it is you're going to commit to and do so in a way that you can deliver a really great job on it," explains Landgraf. "It's worth their final grade after all."UW students voted in fall 2006 to pay for the majority of the Union South reconstruction (about 60 percent) through their segregated fees. Part of that vote hinged on the idea of sustainable technologies, a promise made to the students by the design team."The design process has been led by students since day one--the design committee is made up of fifteen members, nine of whom are students, and will continue to be until the building is finished in spring 2011," says Cornelius.To fulfill that promise, the design team brought in the Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading international sustainability consulting firm, to do workshops about building priorities. They also brought in the Madison Environmental Group Sustainability Consultants, Moody Nolan Architects out of Ohio, CG Schmidt Construction and Workshop Architects to help achieve these goals.To continue reading, visit MadisonMagazine.com.
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