Mark Nelson, assistant professor of interior design (left), speaks during a forum entitled "Imagine This! Envisioning UW-Madison's First Green Building," in Memorial Union. Faculty and students from UW-Madison classes in landscape architecture and interior design, and UW-Milwaukee's school of architecture collaborated on proposals for renovating or replacing Van Hise Hall and Bardeen Lab (visible in foreground) with environmentally-friendly buildings including such features as daylighting, natural ventilation, energy efficiency, solar and wind power, integrated landscaping and stormwater management. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: February 2005

View of (L to R) a stormwater detention pond, Nielsen Tennis Stadium, the Lot 76 parking ramp under construction, and Rennebohm Hall of Pharmacy, as seen from the pedestrian bridge connecting Rennebohm and the Health Sciences Learning Center. The university is now using green building principles to design new buildings, striving to minimize the environmental impact of growth. When completed, the Lot 76 ramp will include a stormwater infiltration bed to keep rainwater from washing into the nearby Class of 1918 Marsh or Lake Mendota. Across campus, the gradual replacement of surface parking lots with parking structures will reduce the amount of paved impervious surface used for parking. By incorporating features such as green (planted) roofs, rain gardens, cisterns and the reuse of greywater, the university will improve groundwater recharge and decrease pollutant runoff and erosion into local lakes. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: March 2005

People study at tables positioned along a large bank of windows in the Ebling Library, within the Health Sciences Learning Center. New buildings on campus have begun to be built using green building design principles, which strive to minimize the environmental impact of a building by incorporating features such as natural daylighting. Windows such as those in the new Health Sciences Learning Center improve energy efficiency by using the sun to help light and heat the building. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: March 2005

Graduate students (L to R) Tory Kress, Liz Robers, Bob Gollnik and others in an Urban Design and Redevelopment workshop, taught by professor of urban and regional planning Jim LaGro, at rear, work in small groups to design an ideal green building site plan for a reconstructed Villager Mall. Their plans proposed an educational facility incorporating such features as public greenspace, a pedestrian mall, structured parking for rideshare commuters, and improved stormwater management. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: April 2005

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