UW-Madison Residence Hall Promotes Sustainability

MADISON, Wis. — Freshman students started filling the new 155-bed Aldo Leopold Residence Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) in late August. The 52,800-square-foot residence hall was designed with sustainability in mind and includes a rooftop greenhouse. Locally based Eppstein Uhen Architects served as the architect on the project.

The 1,400-square-foot greenhouse combines sustainability, energy efficiency and agriculture into a learning opportunity for students. It gives them the opportunity to grow and cook their own food, as well as learn new methods in gardening year-round (despite the Wisconsin winter). The GreenHouse Learning Community, which focuses on sustainability, will relocate this fall from Cole Residence Hall to a portion of Leopold Residence Hall so students can take advantage of the improved facilities and resources. The GreenHouse staff and student interns also encourage students to assist in other sustainability efforts such as restoring a prairie and fixing bicycles.

The residence hall’s other green building features include solar panels, to assist with hot water heating, and monitors for electricity and water consumption throughout the building. Student rooms consist of double rooms with carpeting and have individual room temperature controls. The resident floors include kitchenettes, resident lounges and study areas. The building also offers an on-site classroom, laundry, staff offices and a workshop for students. The workshop will include workbenches, tools, bicycle maintenance equipment, crafting supplies, a resource library, and storage for gardening and kitchen tools.

The residence hall is named after Aldo Leopold, a professor at the university that was considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States wilderness system. He was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer and outdoor enthusiast. Leopold spent most of his professional career on the UW-Madison campus, arriving in 1924 as the assistant director of the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory. In 1933, he was appointed to be the new chair of game management in the Department of Agricultural Economics and, in 1939, he became the chair of the new Department of Wildlife Management, a position he held until his death in 1948.

Aldo Leopold Residence Hall is the last in a series of new buildings constructed by University Housing as part of its 2004-20 Master Plan, designed to meet the demand for on-campus housing by UW-Madison undergraduate students. The master plan also includes several major renovations of existing buildings.