“The Living Building Challenge is LEED on steroids,” says Rich Dodd, project Manager of Berea College’s new Deep Green Residence Hall, with lots of “extra special efforts” along the way designed to make the building not only 55% more energy efficient than most buildings, but the entire construction process more sustainable.

Deep Green Dorm over 50% complete

Last month, for example, expenditures on recycled materials totaled 28 percent of material costs. “Aluminum cans, all the stuff that contractors have for lunch, even the fill dirt taken from the site, scrap wood, 100 percent of the scrap metal—all of that job-site waste is recycled” says Rich Dodd, noting that about 91 percent of all waste material generated from the Deep Green Dorm’s construction is re-used.

Adding recycled brick face

As we walk toward the construction site, a light rain carves out channels in the mud surrounding Berea College’s Green Res Hall jobsite as the industrious clanks, buzzes, calls of “heads up” and putter of machinery drone on despite the weather. Workers busily lay the buildings brick facade made entirely from the tailings of other manufacturers, their yellow safety vests forming a network of dots against the building’s scaffolding. Meanwhile, workers below in hardhats and heavy ear-muffs tend to the drilling of the geothermal wells on the east side of the building, beneath what will be dorm’s parking lot.

Drilling geothermal wells

Geothermal heating and cooling is one of the most energy efficient systems out there, according to Dodd. This is because geothermal capitalizes on naturally occurring temperatures deep underground, rather working to turn the much colder (or hotter) outside air to the wanted indoor temperatures. Typically geothermal systems use about 40 percent less fossil fuels than conventional heating and cooling systems. The Deep Green Dorm’s system will circulate water through 1 inch pipes buried in 50 different wells 375 feet underground. The water in these pipes will absorb the underground temperatures, which normally hover at roughly 50 degrees Fahrenheit. From here the water will be pumped from the wells to an indoor heat-exchanger or chiller as the season demands and continue on throughout the rest of the building to each individual coil unit. A blower on each coil unit will distribute the warm or cool air to each dorm room, each regulated by individual thermostats, so students will have control over the temperature of their dorm room.

Geothermal pipe inlets

“Honestly, the temperature is not going to fluctuate as much as you’d normally see in buildings,” says Dodd, pointing to the highly insulated shell of the building— three inch thick pockets on either side filled with foam insulation  sandwiched by another three inches of air-space. Dodd refers to this as the building envelope.  “The outside air is not getting to this steel” says Dodd, thumping the heavy steel column supporting the ceiling above, “So you won’t have cold temperatures on the outside transferring through the steel to the floor slab inside.  It’s not going to be toasty warm, but neither will it frost up.” Several other buildings on campus also utilize geothermal systems, including Fairchild, Woods-Penn, Frost, and Phelps-Stokes.

Air pockets and insulation in building’s envelope

Says Vice President of Operations and Sustainability Steve Karcher, “We’ve been incorporating sustainable features in our renovations for the last 15 years,” noting the college’s recent renovations in rainwater catchment, low-flow toilets, and energy efficient lighting. “What’s remarkable,” continues Karcher, “Is that while the Deep Green Dorm will be among the most energy efficient and sustainable such buildings in the country, it doesn’t rely on remarkably expensive and risky new technologies or construction processes.”

“Industry-wide if you go from just a standard meeting code building to doing a LEED anything it’s about 30% of material costs,” says Dodd. But these costs are expected to quickly be made up in reduced energy and maintenance costs. The building’s oversized air ducts, for example, will both reduce friction of air-flow and the strain on the air handlers bringing in outside air, minimizing both energy and maintenance costs.

As we pick our way past the giant piles of insulation still to be installed and stacks of poplar two by four boards harvested from the Berea College Forest (48,868 board feet of lumber total), Dodd points out hitches along the way, features which proved difficult to meet the third-party LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge certification standards.  For one thing, the contractors had to ditch any products containing red-list products such as PVC, formaldehyde, or neoprene. The prevalence of these materials has proved difficult in sourcing some products, and in many cases requiring innovation. The substance used to water proof restrooms and shower rooms, for example, had to be changed, as did the roof paints, and numerous other product. Neoprene is typically in pipe insulation, so they had to find a replacement for that. Sourcing materials without PVC was also a challenge, as it is present in almost everything these days, not just in pipes but in carpets and even windows.

Overhead men are soldering pipes together. Dodd points to the air ducts next to where they work, recounting that one of the most difficult challenges was coming up with a duct putty that passed code. “Its really, really tough,” says Dodd, “With lots of effort on everybody’s part, from the subcontractors, to the contractors, to Berea College, to the architects, and the engineers.” He continues, “Third party certification programs aren’t an ‘end all’ to sustainability efforts, but they are a means to an end. We chose to measure this project with a LEED Platinum Certification. That is the highest, most stringent certification. We also chose to use several of the Living Building Challenge’s prescriptive paths because of their holistic nature…by forgoing substances like hydroflorocarbons, pthalates, wood treatments containing creosote, etc., the building will be a healthier place for our students.”

Study nook with lots of natural light

Many of the ‘holistic’ features Dodd mentions will contribute to the overall beauty of the building. Tall ceilings and relatively spacious rooms, each designed to be ADA compliant, with enough to square footage to accommodate two wheel-chair bound students are just one part of the draw. Large floor to ceiling windows allow a flood of natural lighting as well as a good view of the hills beyond. Every floor will have a large open study area and kitchenette, and will feature art-nooks where student crafts will be displayed, lit by night by little LED lights. Student harvested and crafted furniture will also adorn the rooms and study areas, as well as form the baseboards and decorative finishes. Even the shape of the building itself is designed to invite the outside surroundings inside. An L shape layout, the building has one long South facing and East facing wall, opened up so that the East facing side still has south-east exposure to the sun.

The building is projected to be completed in June 2013. The West wing of the building is currently being drywalled and the East half is about to fitted with the wood trim from the college forest. Furniture will begin to be moved in come May. By fall of 2013, students will grace the halls of the college’s newest, most energy efficient building on campus.

Dr. Richard Cahill, Director of the Francis and Louise Hutchins Center for International Education (CIE) and Associate Professor of History, has poured his passion for international education into the College through various programs sponsored by the CIE.

Dr. Richard Cahill

“Life in a different cultural setting,” Cahill said, “can be a really transformative experience.”

Cahill earned his bachelor’s degree at Westmont College, his master’s degree at the University of California, his Ph.D. at the University of California and has also studied at the American University in Cairo.

Interest leading to a deep passion for the Middle East began with Cahill’s first visit at the age of eighteen. After Cahill’s first year of college, he peddled his heart out biking around Europe. His plan was to explore, observe and discover new cultures and viewpoints. After four months of biking in Europe he decided to hitch-hike in Africa. “I discovered the genuine hospitality of Egyptian people and fell in love with their way of life,” Cahill said. Cahill remembers feeling, even then, that all students should have opportunities for study abroad.

The life of academia had always influenced Cahill. Throughout high school and college, teachers and professors encouraged him to become an educator himself.  He followed their advice. At Berea College Cahill teaches “Pre-modern Middle East,” “Introduction to Islam,” “History of the Arabic-Israeli Conflict,” and “Contemporary Global Issues.” His academic background is in Islamic and European history.

The first part of Cahill’s academic career was focused on both Middle Eastern and European history; however, in 1996 he switched over to only Middle Eastern history. That same year Cahill was appointed the Director of the Middle East Studies Program (MESP) in Cairo, Egypt. He lived in Egypt for six years. In 2002 he returned to California and taught for three years — until a friend from Cairo, who was living in Washington, DC, contacted Cahill about a position as CIE director at Berea College. “He knew that I was into the kinds of things that Berea cares about,” Cahill said. “Primarily social justice, inclusive world views and interesting students.” After researching the college and discovering its ideals and history, he applied for the directorship of CIE and a position on the faculty. Cahill has been working at Berea College since 2005.

As Director of the Center for International Education, Cahill oversees education abroad, international student and scholar services, campus programing for internationalization and faculty and curriculum development. The campus programming entails events every Friday, known as the “Think Globally Its Friday,” or TGIF, and the first Monday of the month, which has a global focus on cultural events. Faculty and curriculum development encourages teaching abroad, researching international and global issues and bringing international and global issues into the classroom.

International events on campus arouse curiosity and desire to study abroad. Cahill said, “Students often say that traveling abroad is a life changing experience. Sometimes the students experience hard transitions into the culture. It isn’t always an easy experience, and it takes time to reflect on how monumental the experience actually was. It’s nice when students return to Berea years after graduating and reflect on their experiences studying abroad.”

Cahill notes that it is also a transformative experience for the international students who come to Berea College. When domestic students become friends with international students, their view of life becomes multi-cultured and diverse. Many domestic students have a different view of life because they had a roommate from someplace far away. Currently there are over sixty countries represented on campus.

What better way is there to expand your knowledge than to take a class abroad? Dr. Cahill shrugged. To ensure this remains the case, the CIE is always looking for new and improved international education opportunities. “We are always trying to raise awareness and encourage students to take advantage of opportunities to study abroad,” Cahill said. He was between his freshmen and sophomore years when he first biked and hitch-hiked abroad, and now he’s realizing a notion that came to him at that time — that students should have opportunities to study abroad. “It seems to be going very well,” Dr. Cahill said with a grin that won’t be restrained. And behind his bright blue eyes you just know there’s a part of him that wishes he could go with each and every one of them.

Dr. Richard Cahill on Berea College campus

Dr. Alicestyne Turley, Director of the newly established Carter G. Woodson Center and Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies, holds degrees in Anthropology/ Sociology, Public Policy Administration, and History. The question of how these seemingly disparate degrees work together is one Turley admits to receiving often. For her, the answer is a long one, and it began very early in life.

“When I was a kid, a little kid, my aunts and uncles would tell us the story of Moses, my great-grandfather who escaped on the Underground Railroad.” Turley was told that her great-grandfather also became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, assisting other escaped slaves on their journey to freedom. It was frequently told story on her family’s farm in Powell County in Eastern Kentucky. In middle school, however, Turley encountered a teacher that challenged the story, telling her that the Underground Railroad was a myth. “I really kind of shut down after that. I didn’t know whether to believe my family or not, so I decided not to deal with it at all.”

With the story of her family’s history tucked away but not forgotten, Turley graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Toledo. After two years of study as a communication major, however, she abandoned her studies in Communication realizing the difficulties a woman of color would encounter in the field.

Deciding to stay in Toledo, Turley entered the workforce as assistant to the Director of the city’s Economic Opportunity Association. As her talents and dedication were recognized, a string of increasingly impressive jobs followed. Turley became the first African American secretary to Toledo City Council, and the first African American to serve as secretary to the mayor. A position with the Lexington Human Rights Commission brought her back to Kentucky, where a board member took a special interest in her. “He said, ‘You’re too smart to be working here. You need to go back to school.’ He went over to Georgetown College, paid my admission fee, and I was off to college.”

At Georgetown, Turley earned the first of her four degrees, double majoring in Anthropology and Sociology. She also met a professor, Dr. Robert Bryant, who encouraged her to revisit the story of her great-grandfather Moses. Turley told Bryant about the story, and he challenged her to prove it. That effort became the topic of Turley’s Bachelor Honors Thesis and the foundation for much of her career. “It helped me understand how to conduct oral history interviews, and determine what information was important and needed to be captured.”

Before graduation, Turley met the President of Mississippi State University, a Georgetown College grad, who, like her benefactor from the Human Rights Commission said, “You need to complete your terminal degrees,” and offered Turley a full scholarship to the school’s John C. Stennis Institute of Government. There she earned her second degree, in Public Policy Administration. In the process, she worked with the director of the Institute and Mississippi State officials, including serving as an intern for the Mississippi Municipal Association on public policy implementation. It was an opportunity for Turley to affect the policies she had so long observed. “I worked with the political figures making decisions in Mississippi. That just launched me into the realization of the importance of legislative policies—how policy is made and how it affects people’s lives.”

Returning home to care for ailing parents, Turley obtained a second Masters degree and completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Kentucky. Returning to her family history, she found connections to the world of politics. Although she had verified one Underground Railroad story, Turley found dozens more wanting confirmation. She began working with the State Historic Preservation Office to develop the Underground Railroad Research Model for the State of Kentucky requested by the National Park Service. She reached out to the National Park Service and aided in developing standards for preservation at the national level. “There weren’t that many people involved with that aspect of African American history then. After that, whenever Kentucky began talking about various aspects of preservation associated with African American history in Kentucky, they called me.”

The work led her to develop locally and nationally implemented policies. Her recognition in the field of historic preservation resulted in a special invitation from First Lady Hillary Clinton to celebrate restoration of Ellis Island in New York Harbor and from government officials in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, the site of the recreated slave ship, Amistad. While serving as director of the Underground Railroad Research Institute, the institute she established at Georgetown College, her work with the Park Service culminated in formation of a network of national and international Underground Railroad sites, the Network to Freedom Association. The association brought together for the first time, known members of protected national and international Underground Railroad sites for the purpose of furthering preservation and research efforts.

“That’s how you marry history with policy.” For Turley, it is the intersection that matters, between people, the stories of their past, and the direction of their future. “That’s policy. When you study history, you’re really studying policies that have made an impact.” Those are the kind of policies Turley has worked to implement throughout her career.

When she received the offer from Berea to direct the newly formed Carter G.Woodson Center for Interracial Education, she saw it as a way to continue making history and new policy. “Woodson himself said Berea was the place where his ideas were shaped. His whole educational model both as principal of public schools in the Philippines and in Washington, D.C. was developed here.” As she looks to the future, Turley is excited to tell Woodson’s story, to make the world aware of Berea’s role in influencing education that created change in public education throughout the region, and to continue furthering the cause of interracial education Berea has championed for so long.

Art greets visitors to the Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education