Project profile: Kroon Hall

Kroon Hall, the new home for the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is charged with many ambitious goals: to be novel and inspiring while fitting in with its Neo-Gothic neighbors; to be timeless on a campus known for its icons; to be practical, indeed, the university's most efficient energy consumer; to provide a home for an academic department previously scattered throughout a collection of outdated buildings; to not only be sustainable but to explicitly reveal through its design how a 100-year design lifespan building can run on nearly 60% fewer resources than its conventional peers. It includes offices for faculty, classrooms, a library and study center, an auditorium and a student lounge.

When the building opened in January 2009, it was difficult to imagine the very different physical conditions that had been present on the sloping site several years earlier: a gritty power plant described as a brownfield, a forgotten courtyard that was a visual eyesore, and an unused opportunity to capitalize on the site's proximity to the revered Ingalls Rink and historic Sachem's Wood. Now the power plant is buried underground, the courtyard redeveloped and expanded, and newly considered views and connections opened up across the site.
(2010 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects recipient)