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An Eagle reporter and photographer, along with local reporters, Media Relations representatives and administrators, took a preview tour of the nearly finished School of International Service building April 19 with SIS Dean Louis Goodman, Assistant Dean for Facilities and Administration Joseph Clapper and building Architect William McDonough.
Before classes begin in the new School of International Service building in the fall, the building will host the SIS seniors in a graduation reception May 5, Clapper said.
The grand opening will be Sept. 23 and will involve a guest speaker whose name has yet to be released, he said.
The new building, designed to be LEED Gold certified by Architect Bill McDonough, will break several D.C. records.
It will have one of the top 10 solar panel displays, the only installation with three solar water heaters and the biggest installation of LED lights in the District, Clapper said.
The building will have 114 private offices, nine Ph.D. offices, seven program suites, two 40-person classrooms, three 30-person classrooms and one 25-person classroom, according to an SIS brochure. The building also houses a 150-person lounge and meeting room, amphitheater seating and a larger Davenport Lounge.
Clapper said he does not know if the books currently in the old building will make it into the new one, as there is not much shelf space in the new one.
A member of the Board of Trustees donated money toward a simultaneous translation room equipped with 100 wireless headsets in four languages.
The grand atrium features a rock sculpture, made out of rocks from the excavation.
McDonough said the building will never be fully completed. Future generations of students will have more input in changes to be made.
"This building is not anywhere close to what you're about to make it into. It's not lived in yet, it's not loved yet," he said. "Watch what happens when you constantly engage its positive potentials."
— STEFANIE DAZIO
