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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
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Where the global elite meet
Four years ago, when Sharon Butler was planning her first event for international dignitaries at Yale, she had to rent space at the Union League Cafe. "We tried to pass it off as the heart of downtown," she recalls. "But it wasn't Yale." Now Butler and the university's Office of International Affairs have a room of their own -- or rather, a Greenberg Conference Center of their own. Located high on Prospect Street and scheduled for a grand opening in September, the center was designed by School of Architecture dean Robert A. M. Stern '65MArch specifically for the needs of the increasing number of international delegations that are coming to the university. And it is most definitely Yale. From the bluestone-floored lobby to the blue carpeting, from the dining hall modeled after those of Yale residential colleges to the Y-shaped elements of the stairway railing, there is no mistaking the Greenberg Center for some generic corporate gathering spot. The 13,000-square-foot center owes its existence to a $50 million gift from Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg. The donor's Yale-China Initiative also includes scholarships for Yale students in China and Chinese students at Yale, as well as support for the university's World Fellows Program (which brings young leaders in public service, business, and other sectors to Yale for a semester of study and networking). And what truly distinguishes the conference center is not so much its Yalie-ness as its international-ness. Start with that lobby: the beverage station offers much-hotter-than-usual water, for Indian parliamentarians and Chinese university leaders who want a proper cup of tea, and the recycling bins are labeled with symbols, not words. Note the sun-soaked connector to Betts House, home of the Office of International Affairs. Then move downstairs to the amphitheater, where two interpreters' booths and triple projection screens allow for discussion -- and PowerPoint presentations -- in three languages at once. The dining hall is similarly laden with audio-visual equipment, cleverly hidden by the room's designers. Also hidden, behind carved wooden grates, are the dining hall's air conditioning vents. That provides not merely an aesthetic advantage, but an operational -- and cultural -- one as well. The operational advantage is clear: the grates direct the cold air gently toward the floor, preventing the Arctic blasts that only Americans take for granted. The cultural aspect is equally important, notes Butler, the Greenberg Center's director. The Asian leaders who convene at Yale are highly energy-conscious; they have admonished her for what they considered wasteful air conditioning (and she considered a normal-to-warm room temperature). Like all new Yale buildings, the Greenberg Center is constructed in accordance with the Green Building Council's LEED standards. Among other features, Greenberg incorporates geothermal heating and cooling. Butler says its designers learned from the experience gained at Kroon Hall, the new landmark green building for the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, farther down Prospect Street. By coincidence, Hank Greenberg himself is in the news this month. American
International Group, which ousted Greenberg as CEO in 2005 -- a year before
his $50 million Yale donation -- lost a federal lawsuit accusing him of
looting the insurance company. AIG said it will pursue its claims in state
court. Greenberg, meanwhile, has sued his former employer, alleging
securities fraud. |
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