Project Summary

Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall is the new home of the Washington College Center for Environment and Society. The building commands a picturesque site on the Chester River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The site is part of the watershed's coastal plain ecoregion, a rich setting for a living laboratory that provides students with an immersive waterfront experience in support of the College’s academic programs in environmental science and sustainability.

The building is designed to operate at net-positive energy and to meet the holistic standards of Living Building Challenge Petal Certification. It is expected to produce 105 percent of its energy needs on-site utilizing 300 rooftop photovoltaic solar panels and a ground-source geothermal heating and cooling system. A river flow-through system brings river water directly into the building’s laboratories for research and teaching. The labs allow faculty and students to study river ecology and marine organism biology in a controlled environment.

The design team worked with professors to develop the program for the building, which includes three innovative labs for teaching and research. A wet lab with a river flow-through system pumps water from the Chester River directly into the lab to be tested in a controlled environment. The Watershed Innovation Lab allows students to develop autonomous underwater vehicles and deploy side-scan sonar to explore the river floor. An environmental and biology lab functions as a laboratory and learning space for a range of environmental science and biology courses. This lab also has a river flow-through system.

Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall is inspired by the architectural heritage of the working waterfront of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The simple modesty of form and materials recalls surrounding tidewater vernacular of boat sheds, warehouses, and fisheries common to the area. Craft and detail are displayed in the building’s cedar siding, porches and screens, and exposed wood roof trusses. The building celebrates natural light with a dual-sided rooftop clerestory and views to the riverfront landscape with ample glazing, operable windows, outdoor porches, and walkways. The building mass is designed to reduce cast shadows making it possible for future buildings to access solar energy.