Faculty Knox on wood for success in revamped building

After 16 months of renovations, Knox Hall is open for business.

The brick and limestone building, which sits on the north end of the Union Theological Seminary quadrangle at 122nd Street and Claremont, closed for a comprehensive overhaul in winter of 2008. Now, University institutes and departments have new digs—in a building that remains classically Gothic on the outside but modern and sustainable on the inside.

The Knox construction is one of five University projects hoping to receive certification from the U.S. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. With innovations like geothermal wells and walls throughout the building, Executive Vice President of Facilities Joe Ienuso said the renovation updates will help Columbia reach its goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2017—a goal of PlaNYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s city sustainability plan.

And for Knox’s newest occupants­—Columbia’s sociology and Middle East and Asian languages and cultures departments as well as the Institute of African Studies, the South Asia Institute, and the Middle East Institute—this semester has been about getting to know the neighbors.

Astrid Benedek, associate director of the Middle East Institute, moved to Knox from the International Affairs Building this summer. In addition to the updated offices, Benedek said the move has meant a chance to shape plans and programs with her new building mates.

“We interact more than we used to with professors and students who are in MEALAC,” Benedek said, noting the increase in both social and professional interactions.

Still, Benedek noted that the physical separation from the School of International and Public Affairs means that the Middle East Institute has lost touch with some of the departments still based there.
“We don’t see those students [SIPA] as much as we used to,” she said. “My concern was that the move would really separate us from SIPA, and it hasn’t totally, but it’s too early to tell.”

While the Middle East Institute will continue to schedule its events at SIPA—they may be events that would appeal primarily to SIPA students, and the SIPA rooms are bigger—Benedek reflected positively on her office in Knox.

“This building is lively, full of students,” she remarked.

Sudipta Kaviraj, chair of the MEALAC department, also migrated and now works out of the fourth floor of Knox. The new offices, he says, are more modern than MEALAC’s old space in Kent, and there is more room for research students.

The MEALAC department appears to be in good company. MEALAC now resides close to the Institute of African Studies and the Middle East, and South Asian, Institutes—institutes that study the same things as the department. Kaviraj says that proximity has helped in coordinating all those resources.

As for resources of a greener persuasion, Knox was equipped with four, 1,800-foot-deep geothermal wells that, according to the University, reach through the Manhattan schist to draw water that heats and cools the Knox mechanical system. Ienuso said in a press release that these are the first geothermal wells at the University. Associate Director of the Columbia Capital Project Management group Michael Iorii added that Knox’s column wells and heat pumps are expected to reduce energy costs by 22 percent and water consumption by 47 percent.

The building also has new, low-emissivity glass windows to control heat transfer, which helps to keep the building warm in winter and cool in summer. And the Knox lighting is now “high-efficiency,” equipped with motion sensors and timers.

Knox was constructed 100 years ago this year, though it was only available to Columbia as part of a long-term lease in 2004.