Columbia's Inner Workings

Deep beneath the northern part of Columbia's main campus, an underground city is constantly at work. Unknown to most who attend the school, three power plants are hidden away beneath Charles McKim's neoclassical creation that provide heat in the winter, cold air in the spring, warm water for showers, and lights across campus.

Of these three power plants, the newest one is considerably bigger than the others, though each contains multiple floors that reach far below the campus grounds.

In each of these plants, there lie two kinds of contraptions: boilers and chillers. Yards upon yards of pipe line the ceilings of the plants, leading to and from each machine. Each is painted a different color, indicating its function within the system.

Matthew Early, associate vice president of Facilities Operations, said that the boilers create steam that "loops around the entire campus and is used to heat all of the buildings and provide hot water as well." He also remarked that a few of the buildings have small, backup hot-water heaters for the bathrooms.

Chillers vastly outnumber boilers in the University's power system. "We can't just have one big one [chiller]," Early said, drawing a contrast with the boilers. He noted that many chillers are needed to meet capacity.

The plants employ two types of chillers: electric and steam. On a hot day, Early said, Columbia has to run them all, but on a mild day, the University can just run the steam chillers to conserve electricity. The tubes of the chillers cool water, sending it out to the systems to extract the heat from the air. Then, the newly-heated water filters back into the system, goes back to the chiller, and continues to cycle back through. "It's just a big refrigerator," Early said of the chillers.

The plants abounded with intricate nooks and crannies. Alongside and throughout the two older plants run rail tracks for a now-decommissioned coal trolley, dating back to when the campus used coal for its daily operations.

In one instance, a fuel tank is being built directly inside the plant. Once it is completed, it will be encased in concrete to ensure that if there were ever a leak, it could be contained within the structure. Some buildings which contain laboratories housing many different specimens and chemicals, like Chandler and Havemeyer, have their own backup generators in case of an electric outage. If they didn't, the money spent on all of their materials would be wasted. For the same reason, the Northwest Science building, now in the nascent stages of construction, will also have its own backup power generator.

"We have to work within your [students'] constraints," Early said about the maintenance procedures. Building renovations, including their internal and external upkeep, must be done when it will not interfere with student activities.

"There's so much life here," Early said of running campus operations. A retired Navy man, he said he values the sense of community campus life has to offer. What's unique to this kind of job, he said, is that he sees the students he keeps supplied with light and heat. As Early put it: "The great thing about this job is you get to see the results of your work."