Architecture-- something like a building is a reflection of values, right? And so what we tried to do, in even choosing the architect for the School of International Service, was to make sure that the lived environmental values of our community were present in the design of the building.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and the building has a gold standard rating. There's solar collectors on the roof that provide a lot of the energy for the building's load. There's a water collection in the landscape around it, in bio retention, and that water can then be reused for non drinking water purposes. The other thing that's important to note about the building is that it really led the campus into a decade long commitment to sustainability. We proved the concept with this building today. Every building on campus, every renovation on campus has to meet LEED standards. And we were the first university in the United States to meet its commitment to become carbon neutral. But it's not just about sustainability, the other key design principle in the building is transparency.
This is a building with lots of glass-- This is a building where the dean's office is right inside the front door. The idea being that when you're a part of this community, you should have access to the people who are making decisions. And we should be able to see one another right from the front door through the classrooms.
When we have a major speaker come, we open up the atrium and people will stand on the balconies and it really is a connected-- community feel.
So we've had everybody from President Obama to Jane Goodall speak in this building just over the past couple of years. Just routinely, the highest caliber, most interesting people you can imagine just walk through that front door and are available to us.
