Placing Students First:

California educates one out of every eight of the nation’s students. And while its schools spend nearly $450 million a year on energy, the state reels from an energy crisis so catastrophic it led to the restructuring of an entire industry.

California public schools are facing the same dire problem as schools around the country: how to give all students the high-quality education they deserve within the confines of drastically slashed budgets. California is leading the way with its Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS or "chips"). The program, a catalyst for similar activities around the country, guides administrators and architects in creating academic environments that are not only energy-efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well-lighted, and conducive to effective teaching and learning. At the same time, high-performance schools hope to communicate to students the message of stewardship of the Earth and its resources.

Lionakis Beaumont Design Group Inc, (LBDG), architects for Truckee Middle School in Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe, took an innovative sustainable design approach in meeting the high-performance school’s criteria for site, water, energy, materials, and indoor air quality. In looking at site orientation, daylighting, recycled materials use, water management, sustainability teaching, and energy sources, LBDG sought the best applications for enhancing the students’ learning experience.

The architects used a holistic approach to sustainable design, integrating a range of standardized, cost-effective, sustainable-design applications selected with the student in mind. Construction costs for the new two-story, 85,000-square-foot school were maintained at $22.5 million in a locality known for its high cost of construction. Significant long-term savings were provided by incorporating a geothermal ground-source heat pump and an exceptionally efficient lighting design. The project exceeds, by 20 percent, California’s already strict energy-efficiency standards and was awarded a $250,000 grant as a high-performance school by the California Energy Commission. Due to the short building season and strict environmental requirements, the construction was phased with the sitework and completed in summer 2002 while the building itself started May 2003 and the opening of the school planned for fall 2004.

Site Considerations

High-performance school criteria calls for sites that protect students from outdoor air quality and noise pollution while minimally impacting the environment. For Truckee Middle School, the site was especially challenging. The school is situated at an elevation of 6,000 feet with a high annual snowfall and one of the coldest climates in the country. In spite of the site’s east-west slope the building was oriented on an east-west axis, allowing the design to take advantage of north and south exposures for maximum natural illumination. The building’s orientation allowed it to be bermed into the hillside, providing extra insulation against extreme temperatures, as well as minimizing the visual impact on a site bordering a designated scenic corridor. The school’s smaller footprint, based on the two-story design, allows the natural surrounding environment of meadows and forest to flourish. This overall site approach accomplished both energy-efficiency tactics and sensitivity to the local environment.

Daylighting

Allowing the maximum amount of natural illumination into the school, and especially into classrooms, was viewed as one of the greatest benefits for the students. Studies have shown that classrooms with significant daylighting can produce up to a 20 percent learning improvement rate. Capturing the most daylight in a climate with huge amounts of snowfall and drifts of up to nine feet called for a solution other than skylights that, when designed correctly, are typically an effective solution in most California climate zones. Since the building was designed as a two-story structure to minimize the disruption to the existing landscape, it precluded the use of skylights for the first floor spaces.

Following daylight modeling results and consultant recommendations, large windows were strategically placed on the building’s north- and south-facing sides. The key was to tie the daylight with the artificial illumination system so that lights would be needed the least amount of time possible. An automatic dimming system was considered, but instead, the architects chose a less expensive system that would support the goal of making the school itself a sustainability teaching tool. A simple system of photocells controls the outer band of indirect lighting, turning lights on and off depending on the amount of daylighting available. The system can be overridden and controlled by teachers or students.

To direct the amount of daylight and control glare, a window system using operable horizontal mini blinds between the panes of glass was used. The standard mini blinds were installed by the window manufacturer so that each blind acts as an individual light shelf to reflect light off the ceiling toward the back of the classroom for more even daylight distribution. Students and teachers are able to control lighting for comfort and experience its relationship to energy use.

Materials Selection

The guiding philosophy of what is best for the students also influenced the selectio of finishes and other materials. The high-performance school manual asks for qualifying schools to "promote the efficient reuse of materials." LBDG chose materials high in recycled content and low in emission of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) during the selection process, but some conflicts occurred. When considering the students’ well-being, architects asked, "Which is more important – VOC emissions or recycled materials?" The school could have earned a grant for using recycled flooring material for the gymnasium, but the recycled material had the potential for future VOC emissions. The concern about indoor air quality ultimately outweighed the need for recycled content.

Other products were selected in the same way. Formaldehyde free particle board was used in all casework. Linoleum flooring was selected instead of vinyl composition tile to avoid use of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and to minimize maintenance. For wall covering, LBDG selected a product composed of a recycled tack board covered with burlap and painted with low-VOC paint rather than vinyl wall covering in order to minimize the use of PVC.

Because the state of California is raising its requirements for low-VOC emissions in buildings, materials manufacturers are beginning to adapt their products to meet the new standards. High-recycled-content products that had acceptable emissions standards were found for carpet, ceiling tiles, and plastic toilet partitions.

Concrete was specified with fly-ash to reduce the amount of cement used. Fly ash has less impact on the environment than cement.

Water Management

Following the Lake Tahoe region’s strict water-management standards, LBDG sought a solution for the school’s roof and parking lot water runoff, which would dump harmful sediments into the nearby Truckee River. To curtail the problem, an underground storm water system was selected to route water to an infiltration basin on the site. The inexpensive, low-impact basin is a depression in a meadow in the nearby scenic corridor, which will grow back naturally with native grasses watered by the runoff. Filters in the drain inlets in the parking area will prevent oils and gasoline from migrating back into the soil.

Stewardship

Because the entire school was designed to protect both the environment and the students’ well being, it was important that it also visually demonstrated sustainability as a reminder of Earth stewardship. In addition to controlling daylight usage, structural and mechanical systems were exposed as much as possible in the public spaces.

In early planning, the architects also wanted to show systems in the classrooms. The issue was whether the ceiling should be dropped for high illumination reflectivity to help with daylighting or if the suspended ceiling should be eliminated to expose the structure and mechanical. Again, LBDG returned to the question of what is best for the students and designed a ceiling for increased daylight and enhanced acoustics.

Geothermal

As California’s Title 24 was updated July 1, 2003 with increased standards, a key concern was the economic implication of the restructuring on the state’s electricity industry. Using an alternative mechanical system for cost savings was an idea pursued by Truckee’s administrators and LBDG from the project’s beginning. A geothermal ground-source heat pump was considered, which uses a buried loop or coil of tubing to exchange heat with the soil as an energy source for the pump to provide heating and cooling. While Truckee found few examples in California of schools using the system, more than 500 schools in 38 states have geothermal heat pumps. In the fall of 2002, the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium launched a program to increase the use of geothermal technology in Southern California schools.

Truckee Middle School’s harsh climate and cold ground temperatures were a particular concern in selecting the system. However, when compared to the energy cost of a traditional four pipe HVAC system, a geothermal pump would save the school 59.1 percent in yearly electricity costs with an estimated payback in eight years.

The geothermal system’s higher initial cost is balanced by the low cost of its maintenance and operation because a geothermal ground source produces heat more efficiently than a standard air-source handler. No in-school technicians are required, energy operating costs are lower, the system requires smaller mechanical spaces, and large ductwork and rooftop equipment is not necessary.

Students also achieve greater comfort. Because the ground-source system is divided into many small systems, each teacher has control of his or her own classroom temperature. The system also communicates the message of Earth stewardship by helping prevent pollution.

A thousand design decisions go into the creation of a school. With an awareness and focus on the environment, LBDG was able to make design decisions with their most important priority in mind – placing students first.

Rob Samish is an associate and co-leader of the Education Studio for Lionakis Beaumont Design Group Inc., a multidisciplinary design firm based in Sacramento, Calif. He can be reached via e-mail at rob.samish@lbdg.com.