05/18/12

Story by Melodee Blobaum, 913-469-8500, ext. 4957

Galileo's Pavilion Open House

Celebrate the summer solstice June 20 at open house for new JCCC building

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Celebrate the summer solstice by getting a close-up look at Johnson County Community College’s newest building and enjoying hands-on science using the sculpture that gave the building its name.

JCCC will host an open house for Galileo’s Pavilion at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20. Members of the community can explore the building constructed by students from Studio 804, a design/build program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

Scheduled speakers are Joe Sopcich, JCCC executive vice president, administrative services; Jay Antle, executive director of the JCCC Center for Sustainability; Dan Rockhill, JL Constant Distinguished Professor at KU, and executive director, Studio 804; and John Gaunt, dean, KU School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

“The solstice is a great time to celebrate both the active and passive solar elements of this building, as well as the Galileo’s Garden sculpture which tracks the sun,” Antle said.

JCCC science professors Doug Patterson and Lynne Beatty will capitalize on the open house’s solstice theme with planned activities incorporating Galileo’s Garden, the sculpture by Dale Eldred that previously sat on the building’s site and gave the building its name. The sculpture was relocated to the Galileo’s Pavilion courtyard and functions as a solar timepiece.

They’ll mark the first data point on an analemma, which marks the sun’s travels through the sky over the course of a year; demonstrate how to measure the sun’s angle; and offer other examples of physical geography based on the sculpture.

The 3,000 square foot building houses two classrooms, a lounge and exhibition/display space, and was built with a goal of achieving LEED platinum certification. Clad in reclaimed gray slate chalkboards, the building incorporates such energy-saving features as photovoltaic solar panels on the roof, a small, 2-kilowatt wind turbine, LED lighting, sedum rooftop plants and a rain-collecting cistern that will be used to water living walls of plants on the north sides of both classrooms as well as the lounge.

Studio 804 students designed and constructed the building, which cost an estimated $700,000, a portion of which was paid for by a $1-per-credit-hour green fee paid by JCCC students.

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