Six design and environmental analysis (DEA) undergraduate students have made it easy for their peers to be green. Lounge 159 in Martha Van Rennselaer Hall (MVR) in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell is a new environmentally friendly space, designed by students for students.

Located on the first floor of MVR at the end of the west addition hallway, Lounge 159 embodies the college's commitment to research, innovation, sustainability and community, says Lisa Staiano-Coico, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of Human Ecology, who initiated the project with Kristine Mahoney, director of the college's facilities and operations.

The students -- Megan Belkin '06, Roisin Callanan '06, Hee Ju Park '06, Janice Yeung '07, Sara Patterson '08 and Tiffany Peterson '08 -- worked as a team for months. The team members were selected by DEA faculty as exemplary designers in their respective classes. Rhonda Gilmore, a DEA lecturer who worked with the student volunteers throughout the process says the team "researched student lounges on campus and elsewhere, meeting with human ecology administrators to solicit programmatic requirements and interviewing students and focus groups to find out what type of space would meet their needs."

The project, Gilmore says, gave several of DEA's most promising students "a real project in a real space with a budget that could implement their creative solutions for a space to be used by peers."

The students planned the space and designed the lighting and also selected all the furniture and fixtures and custom-designed several elements. They also ensured that the project was "green," in that the lighting design and all the furniture, fixtures and equipment had no hazardous adhesives or volatile organic compounds.

The new lounge provides five distinct areas: group meeting spaces, individual study carrels, two different kinds of areas for socializing and a computer zone with wireless access.