UO E-clips, Aug. 7

UO museum breaks ground for new wing (Associated Press, appearing in The Oregonian): The University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History has broken ground on a new wing to house more than 500,000 artifacts unearthed by road and public works projects. The $2.8 million addition, funded mostly through a federal grant, is the first of a three-phase expansion program that ultimately will include a $2 million remodel of the existing collections vault into public exhibition space and a $4.75 million addition housing an archaeological research center. Before Wednesday's groundbreaking, the UO announced a lead gift of $500,000 from the Roseburg-based Ford Family Foundation. The gift will go toward adding a public galleria to the collections wing and remodeling the existing storage vault to exhibition space.

Work begins on UO museum’s new collections wing (Register-Guard): The University of Oregon broke ground Wednesday on a $2.8 million addition to its Museum of Natural and Cultural History. The building, funded mostly through a federal grant, will serve as a collections wing for the museum. It will offer a state-of-the-art storage center for the more than 500,000 artifacts collected statewide. It is the first of a three-phase museum expansion program that ultimately will include a $2 million remodel of the existing collections vault into public exhibition space and a $4.75 million addition housing an archaeological research center.

New solar awnings erected at University of Oregon (Associated Press, appearing in The Oregonian): News article follows in its entirety) (Newly designed solar awnings are going up across the University of Oregon's campus, to provide a triple benefit of solar energy, passive cooling and daylighting. If the awnings are a success, they could soon be replicated on all seven Oregon University System campuses. Solar panels on the awnings will generate almost a kilowatt of electricity, while simultaneously providing shade to interiors. The awnings were designed by an architecture professor at the University of Oregon and his students. Three local companies also helped with the $50,000 demonstration project. The director of the University of Oregon's solar energy center will monitor the project's electricity savings and generation.

UO experiments with solar awnings (Register-Guard): It’s a sustainability trifecta: solar energy, passive cooling and daylighting all in one package. That’s the idea behind a new experiment at the University of Oregon. The UO on Wednesday began installing newly designed solar awnings that will provide all three features and could, if successful, start showing up on all seven Oregon University System campuses. The awnings will run outside a 56-foot hallway on the third floor of Onyx Bridge, an odd-looking building that connects Pacific and Klamath halls and is recognized by its X-shaped exterior trusses. Solar panels on the awnings will generate almost a kilowatt of electricity. But they’ll also provide shade on the south-facing hallway, which gets toasty in the summertime. … The project will put 12 solar-panel equipped awnings, each four feet long, above the third-floor hallway where Onyx Bridge connects with Pacific Hall. … Bob Simonton, the OUS assistant vice chancellor for capital construction, thought of the idea while pondering ways to meet Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s goal of having all state buildings run on renewable energy. …. He enlisted the help of Frank Vignola, director of the UO’s Solar Energy Center, who in turn got architecture professor Ihab Elzeyadi on board. Elzeyadi and his students designed the panels, and Vignola and his students will monitor the project’s electricity savings and generation. (Read the whole story by Greg Bolt -- availability to the Web page may be short-lived)