Selected Projects

Institute for the Environment | Rutgers University


Rutgers University Institute for the Environment (IFE) on Cook Campus is an innovative and wide-ranging initiative. Expectations of excellence in the field of environmental/sustainable design demanded leadership and knowledge at the national and international scale, and also required an intimate knowledge "on the ground" with Rutgers and its unique, cultural, social and environmental context.

Croxton Collaborative Architects, in association with NK Architects, worked with the three departments that would inhabit the Center - Environmental Sciences, Landscape Architecture, and Ecology/Evolution/Natural Resources - the team completed a rigorous space needs assessment to determine the laboratory and other space requirements and occupancies planned for the building and the individual needs of the staff. Classrooms and other campus-wide facilities were also included in the building program, as well as site program components relating both to Landscape Architecture's curriculum and the master planning goal of creating a new "Sciences Quadrangle".

Additional value was achieved in the programming effort by building in a more "future-directed" and flexible plan, anticipating growth and change over time. An even more fundamental attribute, often overlooked and not specifically awarded under LEEDâ„¢, is maintainability; sustainability must address maintainability, and thus a fully coordinated framework for habitation-cleaning, maintenance, replacement, renovation, growth and change-was a core value-added component of CCA's design process.