Recent capital projects

Integrated Learning Centre

Constructed in 2003, the Integrated Learning Centre was built with the environment in mind. And it was ahead of its time - we had the first heat recovery wheel to be installed at Queen's, the first industrial solar array in Kingston, the first smart lighting system in Canada, and one of the greenest buildings in the world.
Learn more about the construction of Beamish-Munro Hall...

Queen's Centre

The Queen's Centre, which opened December 1 2009, is the University's massive new student life and fitness centre. The facility is gyms with multiple configurations, a 38 x 25 metre pool, several fitness areas, and expanded food court, lounge, club and retail space. While revitalizing student life activities, the Queen's Centre also addresses sustainability issues with its design and construction and will seek to achieve LEED certification. Highlights of the building's sustainable features include, access to alternative transportation, improved water efficiency, heat recovery, construction waste diversion, CO2 monitoring and material emissions control and a green cleaning program.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

• Queen's has a long history of renovating, refitting and reusing campus buildings, starting with Summerhill and most recently Gordon Hall and Annex.
• Over the years, a number of significant buildings, including Carruthers, Craine, Douglas, Earl, Fleming, Kathleen Ryan, Miller, Nicol and Ontario have been renovated, saving 45,000 square metres of building from the wrecking ball.
• Exterior building materials are reused wherever possible. For example, the stone from the exterior of the Frost Wing of the old chemistry building was saved before it was demolished, and the stone was salvaged from Jock Harty Arena for use on the new Queen's Centre.

Building Materials

• Carpet is returned to manufacturers for reuse of the backing material.

Ozone Depletion

• Since 1992, all new buildings on campus have been designed with central air conditioning systems that do not use CFC(chlorofluorocarbon)-based refrigerants in order to reduce ozone depletion and in support of early compliance with the Kyoto Accord.
• Phase-out program for existing CFC refrigerants completed.
• Since the late 1990s, the University has had a program to remove and reuse all refrigerants from obsolete refrigerators, ice makers, freezers, heat pumps, air conditioners, etc. and keeps an inventory of all repairs to equipment using refrigerants.

Roofs

What is on top counts; roofing material can have a significant effect on the energy efficiency of the building beneath it.

• Since the 1960s, the University has used light-coloured roofing materials on all new flat roofs on campus. This represents more than 95% of the campus roofing stock.

  Why does it matter? Light-coloured roofs reflect more solar energy than do black roofs, reducing the building's summer heat gain and thereby saving energy on air conditioning and reducing heat build-up in non-air conditioned areas.

• Partial green (vegetated) roofs have been used successfully on Jeffey Hall and the Biosciences Complex. and the underground parking garage on Stuart Street has Kingston Field as its green roof.

  Why does it matter? Vegetated roofs have a number of benefits, including reducing the building’s energy requirements for summer cooling, reducing the storm water runoff and the resultant loading of storm sewers, and reducing the “heat island effect” (the difference between the thermal gradient and developed and undeveloped areas) by absorbing, rather than reflecting solar energy.