Campus.News: Features

Performing Arts Center Architects Rendition

The London-based architecture firm of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners has been selected to design Rensselaer's new electronic media and performing arts center.

President Jackson made the announcement July 5, capping an international design competition.

The $50 million project, encompassing approximately 160,000 square feet, is scheduled to break ground in spring 2002 and open in autumn 2003.

"Rensselaer has a reputation as one of the most creative campuses in the world for the electronic arts. For these reasons, we want to create the electronic media and performing arts center as a nexus of technological and artistic innovation and optimized performance space."

"Our whole office is excited about this project," said Nicholas Grimshaw, chairman of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners. "We believe we can bring a European sense of structure and detail to this wonderful series of spaces. We want to design a recital hall that musicians will be drawn to from all over the world; an auditorium that will be renowned for the flexibility and range of its production facilities; and experimental performance spaces that will astound people by their technical versatility. The whole complex will also offer circulation and atrium spaces that will be a marvelous meeting place for the university and the community at large."

The Troy Planning Commission has begun a public review of plans for construction of a new center for biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies, a center for electronic media and performing arts, and a multistory parking structure at Rensselaer.

The State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) procedure will require a fully detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that allows for extensive public input, review, and comment.

Public Scoping Session Scheduled
On Thursday, July 12, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the community is invited to attend the Public Scoping Session for the draft EIS at Troy City Hall. Following the presentation of the Rensselaer site plan, the Planning Commission will prepare a list—with public input—of all impacts to be studied in the EIS. Topics to be considered may include traffic, parking, air and water quality, and aesthetic and cultural impacts.

Once the scope of study for the EIS is determined and accepted by the Planning Commission, Rensselaer will draft the Environmental Impact Statement and submit it to the city for review and comment. Public input will also be garnered at that point. The entire process for SEQR and site plan approval is expected to take several months.

Additional Public Meeting Scheduled
In addition to the Public Scoping Session at City Hall, Rensselaer will host a public information session for the campus community, neighbors, and interested parties on Tuesday, July 17, at 7 p.m. at the Mueller Center. (This time is a change from one posted earlier).

The campus community and general public are encouraged to attend these sessions to learn about and make comment on the new projects.

Lynn Hopwood, assistant director of development communications, and Rebecca Danchak, director of admissions for Rensselaer at Hartford, have received this year's Pillars of Rensselaer Award, the highest honor Rensselaer gives to its staff members.

Hopwood (left), who joined the Rensselaer staff in 1986, has headed the Stewardship Program for eight years and assists donors who give to endowed funds, such as scholarships, fellowships, chairs, prizes, and departmental funds.

Hopwood has organized an annual scholarship luncheon that provides an opportunity for donors to meet the students they support. She also launched a holiday card project in which students send personal thank-you notes and cards to the donors who support their education.

Rebecca Danchak (right), who has served Rensselaer since 1974, organizes Student Appreciation Week, a program that includes activities and events that raise money to support a shelter for abused women and children and assists neighborhood elementary schools. She also founded the Odyssey Community School, a charter school located in Manchester, Connecticut.

"Lynn and Rebecca have exemplified what it means to be a pillar of Rensselaer," said President Jackson. "They have been a role model for other employees, have showed concern for the welfare of our students, and have added to the human dimension of Rensselaer."

In 1993, Carl Westerdahl provided the funding to establish the Pillars of Rensselaer Award to honor long-term staff members. The annual award consists of a gift of $500 and a sterling silver pin by Tiffany & Co. The winner's name is inscribed on the base of the Tiffany crystal award and is permanently displayed in the President's Suite in the Troy Building.

July 1 brought the start of a new fiscal year and implementation of performance plans that support the Rensselaer Plan. This article, which focuses on the performance plan of the School of Engineering, is the first in a series to discuss these changes around campus.

The Performance Planning process led the School of Engineering to restructure some of its departments to help create a critical mass of faculty, staff, and students in each of its academic units, promote greater collaboration among faculty and students, and focus on the strategic goals of the Rensselaer Plan.

Faculty in Environmental Engineering will be combined with faculty in the present Department of Civil Engineering to create the new Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Nuclear Engineering faculty will be combined with faculty in the present Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics to create the new Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering.

Finally, the Department of Electric Power Engineering has merged with the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering.

"We're enthusiastic about the changes and believe that the restructuring of these departments will promote stronger research collaborations between faculty, staff, and students that otherwise might not have occurred," said Provost Bud Peterson.

"The restructuring will enhance the quality of the academic programs offered by the departments through combined faculty resources and new synergies that we expect will spring up naturally between programs," said Dean Bud Baeslack '78.

Research focal areas for the School of Engineering are presently being identified by a school committee with a representative from each academic program, Baeslack said. "These will not necessarily be in established, traditional areas, but will take advantage of the new, interdisciplinary collaborative opportunities presented by the restructuring."

State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno last Thursday announced $500,000 in state support for a major initiative in fuel-cell research at Rensselaer.

The state-funded program will be headquartered in the New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis at Rensselaer. In addition to Rensselaer, the partnership includes New York state; Plug Power of Latham, a leading designer and developer of fuel-cell generators; and Celanese Ventures, a German-based company and global leader in the chemical industry.

Homegrown High-Tech

Governor George Pataki announced June 19 that Rensselaer has received $300,000 in funding to evaluate a new microelectronics insulating material that has the potential to double the processing speed of microchips. The Polyset Company in Mechanicville, and other sources, will provide an additional $300,000 for a total of $600,000 for the two-year project.

The money is part of $1 million in awards to four institutions through the Technology Transfer Incentive Program of the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR).

"As it moves from aluminum to copper interconnects, the microelectronics industry needs new low-dielectric-constant (low-k) insulators to support its drive to produce smaller, faster devices," says Toh-Ming Lu, the Ray Palmer Baker Distinguished Professor of Physics at Rensselaer and director of Rensselaer's Center for Advanced Interconnect Science and Technology (CAIST). Lu is principal investigator and manager of the project.

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The Rensselaer Alumni Association (RAA) has announced the 2001 inductees into the Alumni Hall of Fame. The group includes Rensselaer alumni and staff whose contributions to society-including transportation, food science, fire safety, publishing, and even e-mail-have changed the world.

In 1995, the RAA established the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame to preserve and celebrate the long and exceptional heritage of Rensselaer's distinguished graduates. This year's inductees to the Alumni Hall of Fame, announced at Reunion, brings to 41 the total number of members to date. These newest members will be formally inducted at a ceremony on campus Sept. 21. The accomplishments of the members of the Hall of Fame are celebrated in etched windows that line Thomsen Hall in the Darrin Communications Center.