SRU gets greener with renovation

STAFF REPORT

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — A $250,000 renovation of the Harmony House has begun at Slippery Rock University.

The center for sustainability education and research will get a classroom, offices, geothermal heating and cooling and a covered-porch entrance designed to buffer wind and increase energy efficiency, according to http://rockpride.sru.edu, an online newsletter.

The renovation will boost the house’s thermal performance, demonstrate affordable green building design and maximize natural resources such as the sun, said Thomas Reynolds, director of Slippery Rock’s Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education and Research.

Harmony House anchors the university’s 83-acre Macoskey Center. The major portion of the construction will begin in the spring.

The biggest change will involve the new entrance and addition of a pop-up roof with enough space and day lighting to add upstairs offices, Reynolds said.

The university is working with architects to assure that the project uses only recycled materials and meets the most stringent federal guidelines, he said.

The Macoskey Center is named for the late Robert A. Macoskey, a Slippery Rock professor of philosophy who conceived the center before his death in 1990.