As the symbolic new home for the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale, Kroon Hall is designed as an iconic demonstration of the School’s ideals and values. The University’s greenest building to date, it has been awarded the coveted LEED-Platinum designation, approaches carbon neutrality and is a living laboratory for both students and faculty alike.

Located on the regenerated site of a disused and polluted power plant, the project has a wider urban agenda and has ‘knitted’ together a number of previously dispersed faculty buildings on the historic Science Hill campus at Yale University. The project provides Faculty offices at lower level, with views onto courtyards, alongside classrooms, a library, and auditorium on the top floor. The ‘Environment Centre’ offers a single space dedicated to the study of sustainability, that can also host exhibitions and other events

The brief called for a ‘Super Green’, carbon-neutral pedagogical building, to establish a strong architectural identity for the faculty. This was the driving concept for a simple building form and extensive use of stone and exposed concrete essential for thermal mass. Integrated sustainability features include rooftop PVs, solar hot water heaters, rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pumps, and renewable materials. Facades consist of a thermal ‘blanket’ of stone to the north and south complemented by glazing to the east and west with external solar shading. Local and recycled materials were selected including Briar Hill stone and Yale forest timber to ground the building within its surroundings.

Kroon Hall is the greenest building on Yale’s campus, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 62.5% compared to a standard academic building, rated LEED Platinum. When completed, it was the greenest University building in the USA.