A few months after the opening of Hampshire College’s R.W. Kern Center, something began to smell. Bad. The scent was not one typical of new buildings, such as off-gassing paint or floor finishes, for reasons that will become clear. Rather, the odor lingering in the two-story atrium was distinct and unpleasant. “It was a kind of swampy smell,” says Sara Draper, the building’s educational program and outreach director. “It was gross. There was a little bit of a panic.”