Hampshire College and design firm Bruner/Cott & Associates announce that the R.W. Kern Center on Hampshire’s campus has been certified as a Living Building by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). The 17,000-square-foot center joins just 16 other Living Buildings certified to date and is the largest Living Certified higher-education project in the world. This certification, which is the most advanced green- building standard in the world, will be officially recognized at the Living Future unConference in Portland, Oregon, May 1-4, the leading event for regenerative design. 

Architects from Bruner/Cott partnered with Jonathan Wright, founder and senior advisor of Wright Builders, Inc. and a Hampshire alumnus, who served as construction manager for the project. Its $10.4 million cost, including $7.4 million in construction, was fully funded by donations from more than 100 donors, led by the Kern family and Hampshire alumnus William “Bill” Kern. 

“The R.W. Kern Center represents Hampshire’s mission and values, who we are, and what we believe,” says Jonathan Lash, Hampshire College President. “The building’s value is in teaching what’s possible and inspiring questions about how we impact our surroundings. For everyone who visits the center—which operates net-zero energy, water, and waste, avoids toxic materials, and reduces our carbon footprint—we want them to ask, ‘why would anyone build any other way?’"