Class Notes
ONE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING AT A TIME Engineer Kris Govertsen ’15 has blueprints for building responsibly—and her Pro Vita course will embolden students to protect the planet by changing how we construct and live in spaces. BY MEGAN TADY
It started with a building. Every day, Kris Govertsen ’15 walked past the construction site of the Bellas/Dixon Math and Science Center on campus, witnessing the scaffolding emerge and gaping at the guts of a building. It was like peering inside a body, at a skeleton with muscles and organs. “I got to see the foundation poured,” Govertsen says. “I got to see the bones go up. I had never seen the steel beams of a building because they’re usually covered up. When you look at a building, you see the windows, but you don’t see the HVAC, and you don’t see the pipes. You don’t see everything that actually makes the building work. Just every day, walking by, I got to see a little more of it come together.” And every day, her interest grew. “Watching the construction, I thought, ‘I want to do that. How do I do that?’” Govertsen was most inspired by Berkshire School’s commitment to sustainable building practices and Bellas/Dixon’s Certified LEED Gold status. The Center, which opened in 2012, integrates energy-
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Berkshire Bulletin
Kris Govertsen outside of the Bellas/Dixon Math and Science Center—the building that inspired her passion
