HEADLINE NEWS:

USGBC Center for Green Schools Recognizes Best Green Schools

Study Finds Correlation Between School Construction and Student Achievement

Enter Your Projects Today in LEARNING BY DESIGN Fall 2012

California Funds School Construction and Modernization

EPA Releases School Siting Guidelines

University of Central Florida Recognized in EPA’s Battle of the Buildings

HEADLINE NEWS

USGBC Center for Green Schools Recognizes Best Green Schools

The U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Center for Green Schools, working in conjunction with its founding sponsor, United Technologies Corp., released its inaugural Best of Green Schools list in December. The list recognizes school administrators and government leaders for their efforts to create sustainable learning environments.

Recipient schools and regions from across the nation were honored for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED-certified buildings, and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructures. The commitments of the award winners to measurable and innovative sustainable building goals serve as models for schools and campuses everywhere.

The Best of Green Schools 2011 recipients, representing both K-12 schools and higher education, were selected from thousands of potential honorees, according to Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC. “Tomorrow’s future leaders are in school today. This year’s designees recognize the importance of educating high-performing, 21st century leaders in high-performing, 21st century classrooms,” says Gutter.

Award Recipients

Best of Green Schools 2011 awards were given in a number of categories, including the following:

Best Region: Sacramento area. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has led the charge to bring together mayors and superintendents from across Northern California to create a $100 million revolving loan fund for green school retrofits.
Best State: Ohio. With 315 LEED-registered and -certified projects, including 19 schools registered in 2011, Ohio leads the nation in number of green school projects under way.
Best City: Philadelphia. The School District of Philadelphia made significant steps in 2011 toward the greening of the city’s 291 public schools.
Best School: Lake Mills Middle School (Lake Mills, Wisconsin). In March 2011, Lake Mills Middle School became the first public school in the nation to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

For a full list and details of award recipients, visit www.centerforgreenschools.org/bestof2011.

Study Finds Correlation Between School Construction and Student Achievement

Investments in school construction pay off in the form of higher reading scores, according to a new study. In November, Yale University’s Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman published an IZA Discussion Paper titled “The Effect of School Construction on Test Scores, School Enrollment, and Home Prices.” The paper was published by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, a virtual international research center.

Research conducted by Neilson and Zimmerman showed new evidence regarding the effect of school construction projects on home prices, academic achievement, and public school enrollment. The authors found that after staggered implementation of a comprehensive school construction project in a poor urban district, $10,000 of per-student investment in school construction raised reading scores for elementary and middle school students by 0.027 standard deviations after six years. The authors also found that school construction raised home prices and public school enrollment in zoned neighborhoods.

The observed score gains may be even more impressive because they are not limited to students who express an interest in improving their academic outcomes,” report the authors. “At minimum, the results we present here indicate that when this construction occurs, it should viewed not as an unfortunate necessity but as a key part of the broader school reform toolkit.”

To read the full report, visit http://ftp.iza.org/dp6106.pdf.

Enter Your Projects Today in LEARNING BY DESIGN Fall 2012

Showcase your winning school and college facility designs before 65,000 school decision makers in the Fall issue of LEARNING BY DESIGN, published in October. Your project could be awarded top honors in architectural design and provide extended exposure for your company. Special categories include Green Design & Learning, Renovations & Adaptive Reuse, Interior Design, Historic Preservation, and General Excellence–all categories.

Enter today at the specially discounted Early Bird Rates until March 1. Final reservation deadline: March 31. Binders due: April 16.

California Funds School Construction and Modernization

The State Allocation Board of California disbursed $923.8 million in December to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools for the construction and modernization of 377 schools, according to Tom Torlakson, California’s state superintendent of public instruction.

"Our schools and California's budget are in a state of financial emergency," says Torlakson. "These funds will give districts some of the resources they need to construct or rebuild our schools, create jobs in the community to help the state's economic recovery, and provide students with more modern facilities that advance their academic achievement."

The funding is a continuation of a successful priority funding program created to fast-track school construction projects while stimulating the state's economy. The program requires school districts to have a project under construction within 90 days, versus the 18 months that is typically allowed.

Torlakson is a member of the State Allocation Board, which determines policy for programs administered by the Office of Public School Construction. “We encourage districts to foster 21st century student learning by modernizing their facilities, which might include new technology, solar power, and other renewable power sources," Torlakson says. "Our students deserve to learn in schools that are clean, safe, green, and not in facilities that are relics of the past."

EPA Releases School Siting Guidelines

The Environmental Protection Agency has released voluntary School Siting Guidelines. The model guidelines, developed in cooperation with the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services as required under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, are intended to encourage, inform, and improve consideration of environmental factors in local school decision-making processes.

The final document covers areas such as environmental siting criteria considerations, the environmental review process, the evaluation of impacts of nearby sources of air pollution, and recommendations for states and tribes, as well as offering a quick guide to common environmental issues.

To download the document, visit www.epa.gov/schools/siting/download.html.

University of Central Florida Recognized in EPA’s Battle of the Buildings

Five of the top 10 finishers in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 “Battle of the Buildings” (National Building Competition) contest are educational facilities. The top award winner, the University of Central Florida, won the contest by cutting energy usage in one of its campus facilities by 63.2 percent.

To be eligible to participate in the contest, buildings had to be Energy Star partners. The competition measured a facility's year-over-year energy use intensity (the amount of energy a building uses in one year divided by its total floor space). The University of Central Florida was the facility that had the greatest percentage reduction in energy use intensity.

Parking Lot C on Central Florida's Orlando campus was among 245 commercial facilities in 33 states and the District of Columbia to take part in the competition to save energy and reduce greenhouse emissions.

The university achieved its energy savings by replacing 424 150-watt bulbs with high-pressure sodium light fixtures in the parking structure's interior with T-5 fluorescent lighting, and by replacing high-pressure sodium lighting on the garage's top deck with LED lighting. The upgrades reduced energy costs by $34,907, prevented 258 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and resulted in better visibility for users of the facility.

Four other education facilities finished among the top 10 in energy savings:

Twinsburg High School and Sports Complex, Twinsburg, Ohio, reduced its energy consumption by 46.3 percent, resulting in annual cost savings of $505,323.
Polaris Career Center, Middleburg Heights, Ohio, reduced energy consumption by 43.4 percent and slashed annual energy costs by $220,902.
Hartman Elementary School, Wylie, Texas, reduced its energy consumption by 43.2 percent, resulting in an annual cost savings of $26,271.
Kokomo High School, Kokomo, Indiana, saw its energy consumption drop by 32.3 percent, cutting energy costs by $442,338 annually.

To read the full report and access a complete list of top 10 finishers, visit www.energystar.gov/BattleoftheBuildings.

FEATURED NEWS

Design Solutions Enhance College and University Spaces

Several of the post-secondary Outstanding Projects featured in the Spring 2011 Edition of LEARNING BY DESIGN are notable for the architects’ careful consideration of the buildings’ unique audiences during the design process. These diverse projects run the gamut, from a pediatric care center that serves as both a healthcare facility for the community and an educational facility for university students to an industrial technology center that houses welding, machine tooling, and architecture departments at a city college. The creative solutions represented within these projects demonstrate the importance of designing spaces that will meet the clients’ specialized needs—and best serve the students who will use them on a daily basis.

Read on to learn about some of the outstanding projects showcased in the LEARNING BY DESIGN Spring 2011 Edition that represent outstanding design at colleges and universities.

Schenkelshultz Architecture designed the Edison State College/University of Florida, Pediatric Care Center in Naples, Florida, as a unique space that houses two new facilities at the campus. The Pediatric Care Center serves the children of Collier County as well as providing education and training for college students. The family-friendly center creates an engaging learning atmosphere while achieving LEED Gold certification. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

Renovations and upgrades to the Intercollegiate Athletics Facilities—University of Arizona have led to improvements in athletics programs that affect both students and the surrounding community. TMP/Breckenridge Group designed a new indoor practice gym and a new diving pool and expanded the existing gymnastics facility, providing the opportunity for greater outreach to the surrounding Tucson community at large. The new facilities, which emulate the masonry detailing and character of many original campus buildings, redefine the eastern edge of campus. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

The Life Sciences Building—Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York, designed by BBS Architects & Engineers, P.C., represents the first new building at the Ammerman Campus to be constructed in more than 40 years. Currently under construction with completion scheduled for September 2012, the building is fundamentally sustainable and has been designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. The expansive south façade wall is designed to harvest solar energy, modulate sunlight, and provide expansive views to the southern horizon. The site has been developed as an educational tool representing local ecological environments. All laboratories are adaptively modular to allow flexibility for future layouts. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

The Long Beach City College Industrial Technology Center in Long Beach, California, was designed to house spaces with cutting-edge computer-driven technical equipment for the college’s welding, machine tooling, and architecture departments. In designing the 26,000-square-foot facility, Rachlin Architects placed an emphasis on glass and exposed steel structures to be both aesthetically pleasing and representative of the building’s industrial function. To ensure good indoor air quality and occupant comfort within the industrial setting, high ceilings, a “dust hog,” and operable windows were incorporated into the design. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

BBS Architects & Engineers, P.C., led the renovation and reconfiguring of Mullarkey Hall—Long Island University, an existing undergraduate admissions building in Brookville, New York. While the Tudor Revival exterior of the 1928 private mansion had remained unchanged throughout the years, the interior had been compromised. During the renovation, all original appurtenances were fully restored and embellished, and spaces were redesigned for ADA compliance. Sustainable mechanical, electrical, and plumbing upgrades include geothermal heating and cooling. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

The design of the LEED Silver-certified Ohio State University Ohio Union in Columbus, Ohio, was driven by students and their participation in the process. This student union building, designed by Moody*Nolan, Inc., is organized around a central three-story great hall flooded with clerestory natural light. All of the Union’s unique interior environments have strong but diverse relationships to the exterior, enriching both interior space quality and exterior articulation. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

School Designs Overcome Challenges and Achieve Excellence

Some of the best school designs are those that require unusual innovation, as evidenced by several of the award-winning projects showcased in the Spring 2011 Edition of LEARNING BY DESIGN. Many of the schools that earned Honorable Mention and Publisher’s Commendation Awards were recognized for unique designs specifically developed to address challenging site considerations, in both new construction and renovation projects.

Take a look at a few of these highly honored projects and the exceptional architects that designed them, as seen in the Spring 2011 Edition of LEARNING BY DESIGN.

John Handley High School in Winchester, Virginia, garnered an Honorable Mention for an innovative renovation on a challenging site. VMDO Architects, P.C. preserved the historic character of the original 1923 building. The architects were able to complete the renovation while the school was still occupied on a site that was “so narrow that their only choice was to go up, and to go up with such a historic building is quite challenging,” commented the judges. A new second floor, the transformation of the gym into a library, and the use of skylights were among the elements that caught the judges’ attention. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

The Peekskill Middle School, Community Center, and City Green project in Peekskill, New York, was lauded by the judges and awarded an Honorable Mention. The two-story, 40,000-square-foot middle school was built on a steeply graded site sandwiched between a residential neighborhood and a commercial street. Oriented to offer stunning views of the Hudson River, the school also benefits from an attached (but separate and distinct) community center and a new City Green. Judges praised the amount of thought that went into the massing of the building and the selection of materials by architect Peter Gisolfi Associates. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

NACǀArchitecture was awarded an Honorable Mention for the design of the new Sage Point Elementary School in Moses Lake, Washington, which meets the standards of Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol. Judges praised the project’s well-proportioned entry for young children, the playful use of materials and colors, and the fact that the library is at the entry of the building. “It’s a user-driven design,” praised the judges. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

Judges were impressed by the clever handling of multiple urban site challenges for the new Sir William Gage Middle School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, another recipient of an Honorable Mention Award. Hossack & Associates Architects Inc. managed unusual site traffic issues, main street frontage, a compact site, and a tight budget in designing this French-immersion school for sixth- through eighth-graders. “This is probably the most compact plan we’ve ever seen,” said the judges. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

In designing a 400-student magnet high school on the eastern edge of the University of Hartford campus, JCJ Architecture created the University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford, Connecticut. The architects developed solutions for challenges caused by wetlands, waterways, and utilities on site. This project, which was awarded an Honorable Mention, was lauded by the judges for the school’s multistory, multipurpose commons area. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

The College of Southern Nevada Instructional Center & City of Las Vegas Fire Station 6, designed by JMA Architecture Studios, was recognized by judges with a Publisher’s Commendation Award for its unique and innovative design. The prime objective of the project was to construct an integrated facility providing seamless interaction between both institutions. The museumlike lobby, which celebrates education and the history of firefighting, is the spinal element that brings together the fire station and the classroom components. The apparatus bay faces the campus intersection and showcases firefighters in action. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

Also earning a Publisher’s Commendation Award was the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts and Education, in the School for Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio, which was the first public kindergarten through 12th-grade arts school in the United States. Built of masonry veneer and steel construction, this combined-level school features a distinctive urban curve that provides a dramatic contemporary look. The building, designed by Moody*Nolan, Inc., features an expansive black box theater, recital theater, music performance hall, and art and dance studios. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.

New Orleans’ Greater Gentilly High School, built following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, also earned a Publisher’s Commendation Award. VergesRome Architects and Fanning Howey led this fast-track project to accommodate 800 displaced students. Now serving as a proud symbol of the rebirth of the city, Greater Gentilly is located on a four-acre site, which previously housed a middle school that was flooded and had to be razed. The new brick structure has been designed to LEED Silver standards and features daylighting as well as wind- and water-resistant design. Read more about this project in LEARNING BY DESIGN.