Ground Breaking Ceremony Held At Columbia College
Columbia, CA — Ground was broken this morning for Columbia College’s Science and Natural Resources Building.
College President Dr. Joan Smith and Mike Torok, Dean of Arts and Sciences, presided over the ground breaking ceremony for the $22.4 million Science and Natural Resources Building.
This facility will provide students with classrooms, labs, offices and study rooms for biology, chemistry, physics, anatomy, earth sciences, geology, foresty, and G.I.S. (Geographic Information Systems).
The design includes multiple energy conservation features that will qualify the building for a national LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification as a minimum.
Among its energy conservation features are geothermal heating and cooling for the cadaver lab, solar electric power (40 kilovolts of photo voltaic power), high efficiency electrical transformers, high efficiency heating and air-conditioning systems, solar water heating, sky lights and a hands-on energy metering system to measure energy efficiencies.
The building is scheduled to open for test runs in the spring of 2011. According to Mike Torok the facility could possibility be in use by that summer.
Written by bill.johnson@mlode.com
