Sterling College (VT)
OP-4: Building Design and Construction

Sterling College will have well-maintained facilities appropriate to the aspirations of our community, our curriculum, and our values including environmental stewardship. To sustain such a campus will require that the College develop adequate funds to maintain and repair its facilities, equipment, tools, and other physical resources. The campus will be integrated into the community of Craftsbury Common and will present an appealing appearance to our neighbors with whom we will seek to share our resources. Specifically, the College will endeavor to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and will commit to increasingly live by its commitment to environmental stewardship. c) Objective: Make our worst facilities our best and most efficient facilities first, and thereby lift the whole campus. d) Objective: Adapt our relationship to automobiles and where we park them. i) Implementation: A five-year campus master plan will be developed to include both the current campus footprint and potential purchased properties. (1 through 5) (i) Establish solar and non-fossil fuel sources of energy as the means of lighting and heating our campus, and invest in renovations that place efficiency as a top priority. (ii) Paradise Hall Renovation 1. Create improved space for the visual arts, including woodworking, fiber arts, ceramics, public presentation space, and space for the Environmental Humanities curricular area. (iii) Dunbar & Kane Hall Renovation 1. Develop new space for student activities/social activities and improved faculty and staff offices. 2. Improve the kitchen to meet modern professional culinary standards, and improve our ability to use it as an instructional space. 3. Improve the dining hall with natural lighting, better acoustics, and easier flow of people. (iv) Simpson Hall Renovation 1. Create a new and/or renovated chemistry laboratory, and improve all teaching spaces. 2. Improve Simpson III as a public space and large classroom. (v) Build a new Ecology resource center that offers an appropriate and appealing teaching space and location for coursework and natural history collections. (vi) Build a new Outdoor Education facility, including a yurt and a new indoor climbing facility. (vii) Develop an agriculture center, including potential purchase of additional land, addition of power system and hot water, a new draft horse and other facilities, and the renovation of the current barns. (viii) Add additional new structures to serve as maintenance and storage facilities. (ix) Add on-campus housing for faculty and students with partners and/or families. (x) Renovate Madison Hall and Houston Hall and add better and roughly equivalent social spaces for students in each hall. (xi) Provide access to Sterling’s Bear Swamp preservation land in Wolcott, Vermont. (xii) Reorganize and potentially reduce automobile parking on campus. (Strategic Plan)

As with building operations and maintenance, Sterling College believes in obtaining and renovating structures and maintaining the energy and value contained within them. As environmental stewards, Sterling believes that renovated structures and building very few new structures with only locally harvested materials is more beneficial to the environment and community than obtaining third party verification and certification. Sterling College has committed to this practices in it's strategic plan. Included below are statements from the 2013-2018 Strategic Plan: "Sterling College will have well-maintained facilities appropriate to the aspirations of our community, our curriculum, and our values including environmental stewardship. To sustain such a campus will require that the College develop adequate funds to maintain and repair its facilities, equipment, tools, and other physical resources. The campus will be integrated into the community of Craftsbury Common and will present an appealing appearance to our neighbors with whom we will seek to share our resources. Specifically, the College will endeavor to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and will commit to increasingly live by its commitment to environmental stewardship. Goal: To restore and renovate the campus so that all buildings are efficient and attractive and serve the needs of the community and a population of approximately 120 students."

As with building operations and maintenance, Sterling College's governance mostly purchases used buildings and renovates them. When new buildings are constructed, materials are harvested on site and planned so that the least amount of non-local resources are used as possible.