The Sustainable Hopkins Infrastructure Program (SHIP) and the University’s Sustainability Network hosted what was billed as the 2nd Annual Future of Hopkins Symposium on Tuesday evening in Maryland Hall, despite the fact that not much was actually said about the future at the event.
Subtitled “See the Future,” the symposium loosely followed the thread of the increase in sustainable development on the Homewood campus and beyond in recent years.
Anne M. Roderer, an associate University architect, gave a presentation focused on the evolution of the Homewood campus. She talked much about the history of planning at Hopkins but was vague on future construction plans.
SHIP, a combined group of students and faculty members, works to promote awareness of sustainable development at Hopkins.
According to Roderer, it was not until the early 1900s that the Homewood Campus began to form adjacent to Charles Village. Roderer put a clear emphasis on planning and the ways in which a clear master plan is vital in all development, especially sustainable development.
Roderer noted that the original Homewood master plan was drawn up in 1904, and was not substantially revisited for revisions until almost 100 years later.
The master plan was revisited in the late 1990s when landscaping and the natural systems on campus became a priority. At this point, Roderer mentioned alumnus Michael Bloomberg’s multimillion dollar grant in the early 2000s to replace the old pavement pathways and lots with red brick and marble walkways as well as green open spaces. She recalled the substantial effort made by architectural staff to complete the project — which made the campus both more sustainable and more friendly to pedestrians — over a single summer. During this time, almost all parking lots and roads were removed from the Homewood Campus.
Roderer also talked about the gutting of Gilman Hall, the construction of the Brody Learning Commons and the acquisition of the facility at Keswick for administrative office space.
She brought the audience’s attention to the question of sustainability and how that has dovetailed with the evolution of the Homewood Campus.
“When you think of sustainability you think of green engineering ... very specific things,” Roderer said. “But having a specific plan can be just as important.”
Roderer made it clear that Hopkins is considering sustainable development specifically in all of its new buildings. She noted that all of the buildings built in the past five years or so were built to LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standards. LEED is a system of green building tools and certifications drafted by the U.S. Green Building Council. Roderer said that many of the University’s new buildings are in the process of becoming LEED certified and will likely pass the test.
Hopkins has also installed systems in most of its buildings, according to Roderer’s presentation, which monitor temperature, water meter levels, and other significant measures of functionality. The systems help the University save energy and pinpoint and troubleshoot issues.
Though Roderer didn’t go into extensive detail regarding new sustainable projects that the University is working on, she did mention a 2011 Storm Water Management Plan that is being carried out, which includes building a system of cisterns, green roofs and natural green areas on campus.
Roderer also accepted comments and questions from the audience. Students seemed particularly interested in the University’s plans for a future campus center or student union. Through a short survey sent out recently, students were asked to identify the place where “the heart” of campus lay. Most students identified “the heart” as the intersection between the Beach and North Charles, where the campus meets the surrounding community.
Roderer said that ideas for the student center are in a very early stage of development, but that the results of the survey has led the staff to look at the area around the Mattin Center as a potential site for the new building. She said that she would probably be able to report more within the year.
The second speaker welcomed to the Future of Hopkins Symposium was Kara Peterman, a fifth year Civil Engineering doctoral candidate. Her presentation was about the use of a thin structural steel in buildings to promote durability, recyclability and resistance to seismic forces in the event of an earthquake.
Peterman compared cold-formed steel, the subject of her research, to origami. In fact, she said that cold-form steel is cheaper to recycle than it is to mine or to refine into an iron ore, and actually reduces industry consumption and energy use by 75 percent.
Peterman, a civil engineer by trade, attempted to defend the position of the engineer in the process of sustainability. She asked the question of how engineers can help promote sustainability when LEED standards do not exactly go into detail on the structure of the building.
“Sustainability should be considered before step one,” Peterman said.
According to her presentation, which cited the Athena Institute, 80 percent of buildings are demolished prematurely. Buildings that fail, whether due to poor planning or by environmental disaster, cause immense issues for cities that are forced to rebuild afterwards.
“The goal is to get the full lifespan out of the building,” Peterman said. “To serve people and the environment around it.”
Peterman wanted to focus on structural resilience, and her research looks at the ways that cold-form steel can provide this resilience, especially in the event of an earthquake. She mentioned that though East Coast residents are relatively unfamiliar with seismic episodes, they can and may happen, and people need to be prepared. Peterman’s team performed experimental procedures in which full scale structures of buildings were constructed out of cold-form steel and placed on “shake-tables” which simulate the full seismic force of an earthquake. Peterman showed videos of the results of her test to the audience, in which the structure remained intact after the test.
When a student asked why cold-form steel was preferable to other forms of steel for building, especially in the case of buildings of up to 13 stories in areas where earthquakes are prevalent, Peterman was quick to respond.
“Cold-form steel dissipates energy differently,” she said. “It’s a lot more flexible.”
