Nestled in the beauty of New York’s Hudson Valley near the town of Poughkeepsie, Vassar College matches its idyllic surroundings with a famously picture-perfect campus. With an 8:1 professor-to student ratio, Vassar’s 2,430 undergrads also enjoy a great deal of individualized and personalized support for their educational needs. So when the roof of Vassar’s College Center building began failing, facility director Dean Jaeger knew it was time for action.
Farnham Hall is a classic-style residence hall on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, a community of 11,000 students in New Haven. Originally built in 1964, the residence hall underwent renovations just a few years ago. But due to budget constraints, the roof was not included in that renovation project. With the roof in rough shape, school officials needed to find a way to tie a new roof system into the modernized building façade.
The university’s main priority was to protect (and not disrupt) the students moving back into the dorm at the end of the summer break. Plus, officials needed a solution that would protect their long standing commitment to sustainability and green initiatives. In 2007, SCSU signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) pledging to implement plans to go climate neutral and as a result, regularly ranks among the country’s “greenest” schools.
Roxbury Community College, located just outside of Boston, offers 24 different associate degree programs, sending graduates into the professional world with knowledge of Accounting, Nursing, Information Technology, and more. However, as their 25-year old roof began to leak, the operations team at RCC knew that they would need to bring in outside expertise from roofing and architecture to solve their problem. As RCC Vice President Andy Vidal relayed, “With four buildings to re-roof and unique architectural elements throughout, we wanted to make sure we had both and appreciation of design as well as an understanding of watertight performance.”
