The newly rebuilt Millikan Laboratory and Andrew Science Hall have been certified LEED Platinum, the highest rating for building sustainability standards, joining nine other Pomona College buildings that have achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) status. As Pomona’s first LEED Platinum science/laboratory building, the complex joins just four other science buildings with that rating in all of Southern California.
“Obtaining a LEED Platinum rating is much more difficult in a science building because of the specialized systems required by laboratory facilities,” says Robert Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities and campus services. Millikan’s numerous green features encompass landscaping, lighting, materials and alternative energy.
Here’s the full list of LEED certified buildings on the Pomona College campus today:
PLATINUM
Millikan Laboratory and Andrew Science Hall, 2015
Pomona Residence Hall, 2011
Sontag Residence Hall, 2011
GOLD
Studio Art Hall, 2015
Grounds I, 2013
Grounds II, 2013
Grounds III, 2013
Edmunds Hall, 2007
Lincoln Hall, 2007
SILVER
Richard C. Seaver Biology, 2006
(In addition, the South Campus Parking Structure (2011) was built to LEED Gold+ standards even though parking structures do not qualify for certification.)
If you’re comparing yourself to others, you’re often going to find yourself short on something, especially if they have a background that’s different from your own. … Don’t measure yourself against others. Measure yourself against you. How much have you done to get where you are? And take pride in that, because that adds to the richness of your university and the place that you’re in.
For nearly 20 years, the Pomona College Museum of Art has been home to a series of exhibitions designed to turn a spotlight on emerging and underrepresented artists from Southern California. After 49 exhibits in what became known as the Project Series, senior curator Rebecca McGrew ’85 decided to take it up a notch for Project #50 by showcasing seven artists in concurrent solo exhibitions in “R.S.V.P Los Angeles,” which will be open through Dec. 19. “I envisioned collaborating directly with the artists who themselves were engaging with the contemporary cultural moment through a rich, boundary-blurring dialogue of art, culture, history, social issues, politics, music, science and more,” says McGrew on how the Project Series was conceived in 1999. Many of the artists who have been featured in the series have gone on to major national recognition.
The spring tour of the Pomona College Glee Club took them to a range of performance spaces, from a high school gymnasium in New York’s Washington Heights to a retirement community in Stamford, Conn., to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia. However, the undisputed highlight of the tour was a half-hour concert in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Drought is changing the face of Southern California, as more and more green lawns give way to desert plantings requiring a fraction of the water. At Pomona, turf removal hit a new high this summer, with the replacement of an additional 140,000 square feet (3.4 acres) of grass, according to Head of Grounds Kevin Quanstrom. Among the swaths of grass to be removed were areas around Alexander, Oldenborg, Hahn and Wig halls. Grass-lovers can take heart, however, that the broad, grassy lawn of Marston Quadrangle will remain green—at least for now.