LEEDing the Way
Private schools in the San Diego area are keeping architects and construction firms busy as they upgrade and enhance their current buildings and construct new ones. As part of the building process, many of the schools incorporate environmentally friendly features. Some even attain LEED certification, which is a designation by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). According to the USGBC website,
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
Three local schools – Francis Parker School, La Jolla Country Day School, and Pacific Ridge School – have recently completed or are in the process of completing construction projects that follow green building strategies.
The new middle/upper school library at Francis Parker School.
The new middle/upper school library at Francis Parker School.
Francis Parker School in San Diego
Since 2001, Francis Parker School has completed renovation and construction projects on both its lower school campus and, most recently, its middle/upper school campus. The completion of the middler/upper school project coincided with the first day of the 2009-10 school year, and received a 2009 CAE (Committee on Architecture) Educational Facility Design Award from the American Institute of Architects. The new buildings are not LEED certified, but they do make use of environmentally-friendly features such as thick (7 to 9 inches of concrete) walls, large windows, overhangs and sunshades, the use of recycled materials, and drought-resistant landscaping.
Read more about the Francis Parker School building project.
The new kindergarten building at La Jolla Country Day School.
The new kindergarten building at La Jolla Country Day School.
La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla
For the 2009-10 school year, La Jolla Country Day School opened their new kindergarten facility, an 8,500 square foot Gold LEED certified building. The four-classroom building makes use of ambient light from sky lights and sheltered windows, incorporates an outdoor drought-tolerant garden, and limits energy use.
Read more about the La Jolla Country Day building project.
Rendering of the new Upper School at Pacific Ridge.
Rendering of the new Upper School at Pacific Ridge.
Pacific Ridge in Carlsbad
Pacific Ridge School, an independent college-prep school in Carlsbad for grades 7-12, expects their new 32,500-square-foot Upper School building to win Gold LEED certification. According to the Pacific Ridge website, the new building is scheduled to open in Fall 2010. Some of the green features will include onsite solar power, recycled construction materials, natural lighting for 90% of classroom space, passive ventilation for nearly 50% of classroom space, and reduction of landscape irrigation by 50%.
Read more about the Pacific Ridge Upper School building project.
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