Plans Afoot For Green Dorm At Loyola
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Plans are underway for a new green dormitory on the campus of Loyola University in Rogers Park.
The office of Ald. Joe Moore (49th) is planning a community meeting on June 21 for the planned Center for Sustainable Urban Living, a new dormitory that Loyola plans to construct behind Wright Hall, 6364 N. Sheridan Rd., with an entrance on Kenmore Avenue the next block west.
The college freshman dorm, called San Francisco Hall, would have 213 student units and 442 beds, as well as a green roof, a green courtyard and a greenhouse. The site the university plans to use is now occupied by a parking lot, Moore's office said.
Students living in the dorm will be subdivided into 30 "neighborhoods," which will be monitored for electricity consumption, heat and water use, Loyola said in its neighborhood newsletter last month. Competitions will be held between the "neighborhoods" to see which one is the most energy-efficient.
The dorm building itself will be four stories tall on the north end and step up to six stories on the south, and it will be connected to the greenhouse and Wright Hall, Loyola said.
Among its green features will be a geothermal field that will use the ground for heating and cooling the building, 50 percent green roofs, rooftop solar panels, and a gray-water system in which shower wastewater will be reused in the toilets, Loyola said.
San Francisco Hall will be gold-certified by the U.S. Green Buildings Council as a Leader in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building, Loyola said.
As for the greenhouse, Loyola says it will be just to the south of Wright Hall, and will house a clean energy lab, teaching labs, and classrooms and offices for several departments in both the hard and social sciences.
The greenhouse will also be used to grow the food for a café in Wright Hall, while waste from the food will be used as part of further lab research, Loyola said. Storm water will be used to irrigate the plants in the greenhouse, according to Loyola.
Another five-story student dorm, Bellarmine Hall, is also eventually planned for the site.
