Preserving Our Future

The Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts is a striking example of environmental sustainability

In October, we broke ground on the Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts project, beginning the modernization and revitalization of our historic Alumnae Chapel. With the help of the team at Annum Architects, we’ll create an exciting new space for the Emma Willard community—and fulfill our commitment to sustainable growth.

With an eye toward a cleaner and brighter future, this ambitious project uses a range of environmentally friendly practices. First, we’re strategically reusing an existing building, reducing landfill-bound construction waste and saving embodied energy. We’re installing modern lighting control systems— including LED lights—and making envelope improvements, which will increase energy efficiency. We’ll reduce water use with electronic control fixtures and low-flow plumbing, and our landscape design will manage and filter rainfall.

That’s not all. We’ll also cultivate a cleaner learning environment, installing an Energy Recovery Wheel and Demand Control Ventilation, which varies the amount of outside air delivered to the interior based on current CO2 levels. And with student health and wellness as long-standing priorities, we have carefully chosen a selection of low VOC construction materials.

The future of Emma is here—in the Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a future we can all believe in: innovative and ethical, beautiful and sustainable.