DANBURY, CONN. — Luigi Marcone, interim associate vice president for facilities at Western Connecticut State University, will lead a tour of the university’s new Visual and Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, to highlight environmentally sound features of the building’s design that contributed to its designation last year for LEED Silver certification.

The tour will begin at 1 p.m. in the VPAC center hall on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. The event, organized as part of Ancell School of Business Week activities from March 23 through 26, will be free and the public is invited.

The building’s Silver status for LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, recognized best-in-class building strategies and practices that satisfied established criteria in several areas including efficiency in water and energy usage, indoor air quality and use of recycled or sustainable building materials. WCSU President James W. Schmotter noted that LEED certification validated the new arts center as an expression of “creativity not only in the work of our faculty and students, but also in architectural design and in the management of the university’s carbon footprint.”

Architects, contractors and university administrators focused throughout the design and construction process on the need to incorporate building systems and materials consistent with LEED certification in the arts center, which opened in August 2014. Marcone observed that the design team selected systems “that would not only add to the value of the building, but also give the university the most return on its investment. Several examples include the polished concrete floors, the steel exterior skin of the building, and the energy efficiency gains from the building automation system.”

“The arts center has some amazing attributes that add to the teaching and learning environment,” Marcone said. “This building is made up of thousands of individual systems that come together to operate as one large machine. The goal of the LEED program is to make sure that the machine is as efficient as possible and leaves as little impact as possible on the environment.”

VPAC is one of three structures at Western that have earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Other LEED facilities include the Science Building, also assigned Silver status, and Centennial Hall, with basic certification. In January WCSU received a 2015 Green Award from the Morris Media Group recognizing the university’s continuing contributions to protecting the environment and creating a sustainable social and economic community.

The VPAC tour is among a number of programs planned during Ancell Week on the Westside campus. The public also is invited to attend “Dress for Success,” a free workshop to be presented at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, in the Ballroom of the Campus Center on the university’s Westside campus. The workshop will feature recommendations on proper dress and grooming standards for different workplace situations from Danbury Fair mall retailers including Men’s Wearhouse and Brooks Brothers. The program is targeted especially for students and other individuals entering the workforce.

For more information, email lindenmayerk@wcsu.edu or call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York.  Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.