When it’s completed and open for service the second building at the College of Southern Maryland’s (CSM) Prince Frederick campus will ease the crowding for students and staff plus provide an indoor venue for academic-related cultural events. The three-story structure will also be good for Planet Earth.
On Tuesday, April 16 CSM Prince Frederick Campus Dean Richard Fleming conducted a tour of the new building. The Calvert County Commissioners and other county government staff inspected the progress work crews are making on readying the site for higher education.
The first floor will include one classroom, storage rooms, a fitness center, a lab for the college’s Nuclear Engineering Technicians training center and a large special events room. “It’s got a lot of good flexibility,” said Fleming. “This is going to be the best meeting space in the county.”
Fleming explained in addition to concerts and presentations, 250 to 300 seats could be set up for “theatre-style” events. There will also be a separate room for storing the campus’ beloved piano. The Boesendorfer Grand Piano was a gift to the CSM Prince Frederick campus from the Ward Virts Piano Project.
On the second floor, the entourage got a glimpse of one of the four green roofs that will give the new building Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification status. The four roof segments are covered with sedum, a large genus of flowering plants with water-storing leaves. The growth will absorb rain water, reducing heating and cooling costs, and minimizing stormwater runoff. Fleming explained that bio-retention devices installed in the campus’ traffic islands will hold excess stormwater. The roof is expected to retain 80 to 90 percent of the stormwater, which helps give the structure a LEED rating of gold. Fleming said the structure will be the second LEED-certified building in Southern Maryland and the first rated gold.
Most of the new classrooms and offices are located on the second floor.
When the college’s first building opened in 2005, school officials discovered challenges due to a lack of adequate parking spaces. Fleming said that problem won’t occur when the second building opens. A new lot with 150 spaces will serve the campus. Although it is a paved surface, the new lot also has some green components. Fleming said the college will designate some spaces for hybrid vehicles and carpoolers only.
While the green components have added to the initial cost of the building—an estimated $10 million price tag, using state and county money&md
