The Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center commonly known as the Intercultural Center or ICC is a seven-story mixed use building on the main campus of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

named for Edward B. Bunn. The center was built in 1982 as the Photovoltaic Higher Education National Exemplar Facility in conjunction with a grant from the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

. The facility hosts numerous administrative offices, student facilities, and conference spaces, but is best known for its contribution to solar power development. Among the occupants of the building are the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States, is an academic center "distinguished by its emphasis on study of the contemporary Arab world and its rigorous Arabic language training." Part of ...

, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and several departments of

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers over 40 undergraduate degrees and a Mas ...

History

Georgetown Intercultural Center by Matthew Bisanz

In 1980,

applied to the Department of Energy for a grant to fund the construction of an intercultural center that would showcase the potential use building integration of

photovoltaic panel Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

s to produce electrical power. While the Congressional funding for the solar panels came as a result of heightened awareness of energy issues following the

1973 oil embargo In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after E ...

, the funding for the structure itself came as a result of Georgetown's goal of improving American education in foreign languages and international affairs, which was deemed deficient in the post-Vietnam era. This was part of Georgetown's effort at the time to secure federal funding for model projects that could be replicated at other universities and institutions across the nation. Construction began in early 1980 and the building itself was completed in May 1982 at a cost of $23,000,000. The interior of the building consists of six floors of educational space and a seventh maintenance floor, altogether totaling . While at the time the center was considered futuristic, a "dark spaceship" on the historic campus, it has since become incorporated into the campus with its Red Square courtyard serving as a student gathering area.

Solar panels

In its original plans it would have been the largest photovoltaic installation in the world and as completed was one of the largest ever constructed. At its peak it produced per year of electrical power, however with age, its current generation is approximately per year, or 6% of the structure's needs. Additionally, the solar panels that were installed used a rough glass that reduced efficiency, but prevented glare from affecting airplanes operating out of nearby

Reagan National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is a public airport in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, from Washington, D.C. The closest airport to the nation's capital, it is one of two airports owned by the federal government and ope ...

. While it had been designed with the installation of solar panels in mind, they were not installed until late 1984 by the Solarex Corporation at a cost of approximately $10,000,000. Solarex installed the of solar panels on the roof of the center facing south. Solarex was later purchased by the

Amoco Amoco ( ) is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company i ...

oil company and sold in 1995 to the

Enron Enron Corporation was an American Energy development, energy, Commodity, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both re ...

energy company. The center has been recognized as being ahead of its time in the promotion of renewable energy sources and for continuing to operate as designed, decades after its construction.

References

{{Georgetown University Georgetown University buildings University and college buildings completed in 1982 Event venues established in 1982 1982 establishments in Washington, D.C.