 |
|
|
|
|
De Anza teachers lobby for state-of-the-art facility
By Bryan Rockstroh
At the southeast corner of De Anza College, down by the baseball field and behind the tennis court, lies the Environmental Studies Area, an oasis on the South Bay campus.
In 1971, now-retired biology instructor Doug Cheeseman and a group of faculty and students took a barren acre lot of dirt and transformed it into a hidden habitat for California's native plant communities. A stream now winds its way through a thick overgrowth of trees.
A family of ducks paddles around in the pond next to student researchers in a rowboat. There are miniature sand dunes and even a little waterfall. In the hectic, go-for-broke Silicon Valley atmosphere, it is a very relaxing place.
For 10 years, biology instructor Julie Phillips and others have dreamed of a building to complement the area. The proposed Environmental Studies Building (ESB) would be an environmentally friendly structure with photovoltaic solar panels for electricity, a climate responsive design to cut heating and cooling costs, and windows that actually open.
Plans call for the building to house rotating exhibits from world-class institutions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium and San Francisco's Exploratorium. Architects are lined up and organizers have detailed plans and blueprints ready to go.
All the proponents now need is the money.
"It is a very innovative building," said Mike Brandy, De Anza vice president of Finance and College Services, "but it will be very expensive to build."
ESB organizers are looking at a $12 million price tag. Funds from the voter-approved Measure E will only give them $6 million. The organizers must raise the remaining revenue.
"To my knowledge, no community college has ever raised that much for a building," said Phillips. "It will be a challenge, but we've always thought that we would have to raise funds."
Administrators now are assessing priorities for the new campus construction by looking at expected growth patterns in programs and student enrollment. By June, they'll know definitely which facilities they need to build first.
All of the new buildings falling under De Anza's master renovation plan are expected to cost roughly $60 million. The college has $48 million in Measure E construction funds, so departments are jockeying for position.
"If they were able to raise the funds for the [ESB] building," Brandy said, "they would definitely go to the top of the list. Otherwise they will need to compete with other projects." ESB organizers have done a lot of fundraising already. Organizers have a broad base of grassroots support from staff and students, including the De Anza student government, which approved $180,000 for the building.
"Many students are learning about the principles of energy conservation in school, and then they look around and find that those principles aren't being applied," said Dave Deppen, vice president of Van der Ryn Architects, one of the firms retained to design the building. "This building has what we call 'in-the-body' learning. It uses the same principles the students are learning about, with natural ventilation and passive solar design."
The building's design, planners said, would work with the natural environment rather than against it, thereby cutting electricity, heating and cooling costs in half.
"Students were part of the planning teams," said John Blankenship, an associate at VBN Architects. "They paid for the initial design and have been involved at every step, so they have a vested interest in this building."
When completed, organizers say the building would draw local professionals for conferences, and students would be able to meet prospective employers, providing a mixing ground for networking and new ideas. "An advanced building is needed to attract Silicon Valley leaders," said Blankenship. "They can go anywhere and be in a regular room. But they like the cutting-edge."
"People in our state are looking for answers to our education problems," said Phillips. "This building will make kids want to come to school. It's an opportunity to provide learning and change the way we teach."
One of the ways the building's proposed design may change teaching is through its use of daylighting. The design uses the sun to provide most of a building's light in the daytime through the generous use of skylights and windows.
A 1999 Pacific Gas and Electric study by the Heschong Mahone Group on the long-term effects of daylighting found a strong correlation between daylighting and improved student test scores. It cites improved visibility and a general feeling of well-being among the students as potential causes.
"It's going to be a spectacular building," said ESB Technical Project Manager Donald Aitken. "It will be the first truly 21st-century structure in the Bay Area."
One of the nation's leaders in renewable energy policy and climate-responsive architecture, Aitken has designed buildings at Harvard University and has taught at institutions around the world. He helped mold Phillips' career when she studied at San Jose State University, and he remains optimistic about the building's construction in spite of the current funding battle.
"The missing ingredient in most situations is leadership," Aitken said. "When the leadership cares, you can do anything. There at De Anza, you have a leadership that cares. So we have a real chance to do something beautiful."
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
