Autumn 2007: Campus Beat

Exterior of Turman Hall

In the ‘LEED’: The new Turman Hall uses sustainable materials and low-energy appliances.

Bryan Meltz

Emory sprouts new green residence halls

By Mary J. Loftus

Emory’s new Turman Hall, one of the first “green” residence halls in Georgia, opened its doors to new students this fall—the first in a planned complex of up to nine residence halls that will increase the number of undergraduates living on campus. Several new halls are being built while older ones such as Gilbert, Thomson, and Turman West are being demolished.

About 63 percent of Emory undergraduates live on campus, and the aim is to increase this to 80 percent in the next few years. “The overarching goal is to consolidate and enrich Emory’s freshman experience,” says Ciannat Howett 87C, director of sustainability initiatives at Emory. “Turman Hall features a citizenship theme; all residents selected to live there had to apply, and they will participate in ‘Emory as Place,’ which seeks to connect students to the natural environment and the social, cultural, and historical setting of Emory through campus nature walks and interactive learning.”

All new residence halls will be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards, as established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Turman is a five-story, 44,000-square-foot residence hall with 132 beds plus two apartments. Seventy-eight percent of the construction waste from the project was recycled. The flooring is mostly bamboo, and all carpet has a very high recycled fiber content. As part of the building’s energy conservation features, Energy Star appliances are installed throughout. Energy consumption for the building will be displayed on a monitor in the lobby, a tactic designed to encourage friendly competition among residence halls. (View Turman Hall's energy consumption online.)

Turman Hall also uses 30 percent less water than a typical project of comparable size.