PRINCETON: University center gains approval

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   Another Princeton University proposal passed through the Planning Board last week, making for three major expansion projects.
   The Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment received unanimous approval from the board on Thursday night with two conditions.
   The building will be located on a four-acre site on a 12-acre parcel at the corner of Olden Street and Prospect Avenue in the engineering quad at the eastern most extension of campus. The site contains the engineering buildings, known as E quad, Bowen Hall and a parking garage. On campus, it is diagonally situated across the campus from the proposed arts and transit neighborhood near the Dinky station.
   The Carl Fields Center and Liberation Hall will be demolished and the new buildings are nestled into space between E quad buildings and Bowen Hall. Programs that had been held in Liberation Hall and the former Osborne Fieldhouse, including Carl Fields Center, have already been relocated to 58 Prospect Avenue, across the street.
   Focus of the 103 employees working at the three-story, 128,000 square foot building will be on the study of energy and sustainable energy. The building will contain lab, classroom and administrative spaces, with lab space taking up the majority of the space. There will be 31 faculty members, 31 researchers and 41 graduate students in the building. Some of the staff will be existing staff already working on campus in various locations.
   ”This project has implications for the entire planet,” said Emily Carter, director of Andlinger. “It is meant to look for and research breakthrough discoveries in areas that will get us off fossil fuels as not just a nation, but the entire planet so we can preserve the planet.”
   ”In this project what we are doing is bringing together all of our school of engineering, all the sciences, the school of architecture, the Woodrow Wilson School (of Public and International Affairs) ; anyone who is interested, they are welcome,” said Ms. Carter. “This is an opportunity, this is such an important research and education program for the university.”
   Developed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of New York, one story of the building will be below grade, with a street level and second story, working with the natural slope of the site. All of the buildings will be connected and an enclosed bridge will connect to the E quad to the new buildings.
   The buildings are organized around pubic and private gardens and feature rooftop gardens, which are key parts of the project since part of the focus of the buildings is environmental research. One garden will be public at the entrance to the complex and two private gardens will only be accessible through the buildings.
   The brick wall that runs adjacent to Olden Street and Prospect Avenue, designed by the firm McKim, Mead and White, will remain in place.
   The building will be built to LEED Silver certification standards.
   The site will include additional sidewalks and bike paths.