Energy and Environment
Always Old Brown, always New Brown The interplay of wood, glass, and daylight honors the history of Rhode Island Hall. One of the oldest buildings on the College Green has now received a very modern honor.

Brown earns its first LEED gold certification

One of the earliest buildings on campus, Rhode Island Hall, has become the first to receive gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
By Deborah Baum  |  September 10, 2010  |  Email to a friend

Rhode Island Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the College Green, has received a gold certification from the U.S. Green Buliding Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green building. This is Brown’s first LEED gold certification.

Following a $12-million renovation, the building was dedicated as the new home of the Artemis A.W. and Martha Sharp Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World last fall. The renovation was led by Anmahian Winton Architects of Cambridge, Mass., with Nick Winton, a 1985 Brown graduate, as the principal designer.

The entire contents of the building were removed, and reconfigured spatially and structurally. The architects say the new design “challenges the notion of archaeology as a conservative and dusty pursuit. The interplay of wood, glass, and daylight creates varying levels of transparency and light between spaces and encourages dialogue between faculty and students in a very contemporary environment that acknowledges the history of the original building.”

The LEED green building certification program encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through a suite of rating systems that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance. Gold is the second-highest rating a building can receive.