CLH President Christine Hilt recently attended the Association for Learning Environments South Carolina Chapter Conference held in Charleston, SC. Her presentation “Brown is the New Green: The Prats, Pitfalls and Benefits of Building Schools on Brownfield Sites” explored the pros and cons of brownfield adaptive reuse from the cost of clean up to the public perception of health risks to students.  Her discussion looked at the impacts of placing a school in an industrial area has on its neighbors, zoning and land use, and what programs are most likely to succeed in this setting. She shared details on four case studies: An inner city middle school which was awarded the first EPA Smart Growth Award for Schools in the Nation, a middle school, an advanced career center in adapted industrial buildings, and an athletic complex and stadium on a 1930’s demolished brownfield factory site. This session provided a great summary of this type of building program.