LOUISVILLE, Ky.–The University of Louisville’s College of Business just got something no other UofL building has ever had — a “green” roof created with living plants.
The M. Krista Loyd Sky Garden, which is expected to trim 25 percent from heating and cooling costs in the two-story addition it covers, also drains to a rain garden on the ground below to help prevent campus flooding.
The roof, named for the late daughter of Raymond and Eleanor Loyd of Louisville who donated $55,000 for the project, sits atop a new 7,000-square-foot wing on the business school’s west side. The wing provides much-needed space for the school’s Equine Industry Program and Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship, Charlie Moyer, the school’s dean, said today at a dedication ceremony.
The equine program will occupy the first floor of the $3.4 million addition, while the second floor will house the entrepreneurship program. Each 3,500-square-foot floor includes faculty office space, a student computer/practice lab and a conference room.
“Not only will this wing provide more office space for our faculty, but it will allow us to create a new student classroom on the atrium level of our main building,” Moyer said.
“In recent years, student and faculty accomplishments have transformed our College of Business from a school of convenience into a college of choice,” said UofL President James Ramsey. “We’re proud that our business school—which leads the region in academic excellence and continues to place well in national rankings—also is ahead of the pack when it comes to environmentally-friendly construction.”
UofL’s business school offers programs in undergraduate business, accounting and economics, a master of accountancy degree and several types of master of business administration degrees. It also offers a unique Ph.D program in entrepreneurship.
Last year, TNG Pharmaceuticals, a team of graduate students from the school, took global honors in the Venture Labs Investment Competition at University of Texas at Austin, an event known as the “Super Bowl” of business plan contests.