Fire-Rated Frames Support Environmental Center’s Green Goals
Located in Brunswick, Maine, Bowdoin College aims to inspire students and faculty to work towards a greener tomorrow with its Roux Center for the Environment. In the words of Michele “Shelley” Cyr ’76, P’12, chair of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees, “This is a stunning new center that will advance the critical work of educating and motivating a new generation of humanists, scientists, and social scientists to meet the world’s great environmental challenges.” To bring its interdisciplinary approach to the environment to the fore, the college envisioned a three-story, 29,167 square foot addition that would serve as a hub for technology, environmental awareness and learning.
Framed by stately white pines, the Roux Center harmonizes the natural with the manmade. The building’s thermally modified lumber cladding pairs beautifully with eye-catching glass-paneled expanses. Along with sustainable aesthetics, the Roux Center sought to adhere to the highest green standards in architecture today, LEED Platinum certification. The college tasked architecture firm, Cambridge Seven Associates (C7A), with designing the Roux Center’s classrooms, teaching labs, research labs, faculty offices, conference rooms and common spaces/corridors for optimum daylight, quality views and enhanced collaboration.