During its design, the Peggy Ryan Williams Center was called the “Gateway” building – because it houses Admissions and Human Resources and senior administrative offices, it does serve as our “gateway” to welcome visitors to the campus and introduce them to our culture of sustainability.

The following offices are located within the PRW Center:

Garden Level:
Graduate & Professional Studies
Human Resources

Level 1:
Admission

Level 2:
Enrollment Managment
Institutional Research
Registrar
Student Financial Services

Level 3:
Finance & Administration
Legal Affairs
President
Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs

 

The blue stone used for the flooring and other areas is locally sourced from the Binghamton-area. You will see the use of natural materials throughout the building selected by the architects to reflect the natural beauty of our region.

Air, which has been pre-cooled as it travels over the shade garden located outside near the HR Rotunda, and is additionally cooled as it travels over the terraced garden wall, is brought into the building through automatically opening windows on the garden level and in the light monitor to purge heated air out the top. This activity helps with ventilation and temperature regulation.

There is green roofing on the north and south sides of the building is used to collect water. The 6,500 square feet of sedum captures water, which is transferred and held in a 12,000 gallon cistern on the north side of the building.  This water is later used for toilet flushing.

The toilets in the bathroom have a dual flush capability -- up for liquid waste and down for solid waste.  These instructions appear in every bathroom stall.

The low-flow faucets in the bathroom have automatic sensors to turn on the flow; these are powered by photocells that are charged by either natural light entering the bathroom or from the overhead fluorescent lighting.

There are not many paper towel dispensers in the building. Instead, super-high-efficiency hand dryers dry hands three times faster than conventional hand dryers and use 80% less energy. 

Feel the power!!!

You may be wondering what that blue glass is up in the light monitor.

It is just a unique piece of glass that casts a colored shadow on the wall – like a “sundial” - which will help to track the path of the sun through the day. The path will change significantly through the year.

Light sensors shut off lights after five minutes of no activity and turn on when there is movement. Daylight monitors also respond to the amount of natural lighting available, and dim or entirely shut off interior lighting when not needed.

Operable windows push out for fresh air when the temperature outside is between 50º and 75º and the humidity is below 70%. If people open their windows when it is outside those limits the building has to work harder to regulate temperature.

There are thermostats for every two offices. There is a two degree variation +/- the building’s set point temperature range which follows the College “set point” policy. During the heating season (generally November through April) the temperature range for office thermostats will be fixed at between 69-71°. During the cooling season (generally May through October), the temperature set point range will be 74-76°. This simple change saves Ithaca College between $150,000-200,000 annually.

The elevators are operated using traction system instead of a hydraulic system. There is no hydraulic fluid to leak into the ground. A traction system uses 90% less energy compared to a traditional hydraulic system.

Here is one of three tables built by the carpentry shop at the college for the PRW Center. It is made from cherry that was sustainably harvested from the College’s Natural Resource Reserve in Newfield, which is about 10 minutes away from campus.