Although the anticipated Associated Students Sustainability Center was set to open in March 2017, the building is still under construction.
According to the Sustainability Center’s website, the facility is due May 2017.
A.S. General Manager David Crandall, said that the start of the construction has been the only delay so far. Although aggressive weather conditions in the month of February halted construction, it did not make construction work fall-back. Other than that, Crandall said the construction is still on schedule.
“We see the building itself as a textbook,” Crandall said.
Director of Design and Construction Catherine Kniazewycz, said that the building will be substantially complete by mid-July. “This does not include move-in or other minor repairs,” Kniazewycz said. For now, it is only a “collection of steel.”
The center will be ready by the beginning of the fall semester. Although there is no absolute guarantee, its grand opening is anticipated to be sometime during the month of September or October.
According to Kniazewycz, the structure will be a zero-net-energy building, meaning that solar panels will be the main source of electricity. “Over the course of a year we will produce as much power as a grid,” Kniazewycz said.
The 9,000 square feet Sustainability Center will feature a courtyard for recycling and seminar rooms for educational programs about sustainability. The building will also include administrative offices, a small kitchen, two showers and even a composting toilet.