University of North Carolina to have first “green” building

It has been learnt that the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has achieved a new milestone by means of breaking ground on a new, 120,000-square-foot classroom building. It has been learnt that the new project will enable the School of Education to expand out of the cramped confines of Curry Hall. “As our growth has taken place over the last few years, we’ve had to make a lot of internal accommodations just to house all of the new people,” explained School of Education Dean Dale Schunk.

The project is of worth $47-million and is likely to open by the fall 2011 semester. The entire project is being paid for out of more than $700 million in funds for capital improvement projects approved while Mike Easley was governor.

This new building is also the first “green” building on campus and will stand on Spring Garden St. next to the Bryan School of Business and Economics. The structure will meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council, the school said.

“It’s extremely important to us in the current economic climate to move forward with a project that is so desperately needed for our students,” Chancellor Linda Brady said. “We turn away many well-qualified students, especially from our education program, simply because we don’t have the space. We don’t have the classroom space to accommodate them.”

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. Also known as UNCG, the university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 59 master’s and 22 doctoral programs. The University’s academic schools and programs include Arts & Sciences, Business & Economics, Education, Health & Human Performance, Human Environmental Sciences, Music, Nursing, Continual Learning, Graduate School and Lloyd International Honors College.

UNCG is distinguished by its five leadership areas - business, cultural leadership, education, public policy and social change, and science. In addition, the university is home to a horde of research institutes and centers including the Center for Applied Research, Center for Creating Writing in the Arts, Center for Global Business Education & Research, Center for Biotechnology, Genomics & Health Research, McDowell Research Center for Global IT Management, Center for Music Research and the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE).