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November 2007
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CAMPUS NEWS |
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SIS Celebrates Green Future with Ground-breaking Ceremony
President Neil Kerwin, SPA/BA ’71 and SIS Dean Louis Goodman will host a much-anticipated ground-breaking ceremony for the School of International Service’s new building on Wednesday, November 14, at 2 p.m. The ceremony will commemorate 50 years of international education and service, and celebrate the school’s long-awaited, new home. The 75,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility will provide students with an environment in which they can better prepare themselves for an increasingly interconnected and challenging world. Dean Goodman, currently the longest standing dean at AU, probably knows SIS better than anyone on campus. “After a year in my position, I could tell that major growth was coming,” said Goodman, reflecting back 20+ years on the state of SIS when he arrived. “I almost immediately said that we need a new building.” Today, SIS is the largest school of international affairs in the United States with nearly 2,500 students from 150 countries. But it has outgrown its space. In 1958, the building opened its doors to 80 students. At the time, President Dwight Eisenhower spoke at the school's ground-breaking ceremony, telling the crowd that the world would need new leaders, capable and determined to “wage peace” in the post-Cold War environment. With space issues at the top of list for SIS’s new quarters, architects William McDonough + Partners, and Quinn Evans, along with the SIS building committee, set out to create an environmentally focused structure that will “leave AU with the ‘greenest’ International Relations building created as of 2009,” boasts Goodman. “It will serve as an inspiration to students and alumni, to think about 21st century issues that we confront – climate change and how it affects all of us.” Design features will reduce energy consumption and minimize construction waste, while also utilizing materials that are nontoxic and help ensure the quality of indoor air. The building will also feature many windows and skylights, making significant use of natural lighting. The addition of numerous facilities and classrooms, allowing for all of the school’s personnel to be housed in the same building also excites the SIS community. Currently, faculty and staff are split up among eight different buildings across campus. “It will be a boost to programming, much like what happened with the law school when they moved into their new building. We should be able to relate to each other on a new level, as a whole,” says Goodman. In addition to the ground-breaking ceremony, alumni and friends are encouraged to join the school for a 4 p.m. panel discussion about the new building, facilitated by Dean Goodman and featuring the building’s architects and building committee. Then at 6 p.m., the school will host the Annual SIS Fall Dinner, honoring Professor Gary Weaver, SPA/BA '65, SIS/MA '67, PhD '70 this year. Alumni are to encouraged to go online to learn more about the new building, including floor plans, renderings, and available naming opportunities. “The SIS Building and Katzen Arts Center will be the bookends for AU, which is very impressive for the university, as well as for SIS,” says Goodman. -David Ferraris | |||
