CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH PLANNING COMMISSION DESIGN AWARDS PROGRAM 2012

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1 Virginia Beach City Public Schools COLLEGE PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH PLANNING COMMISSION DESIGN AWARDS PROGRAM 2012 NOMINATION APPLICATION SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

2 PROJECT NARRATIVE The new College Park Elementary School was designed to be the next generation prototype elementary school for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. The new prototype was a site and building designed to achieve a LEED Platinum certification. The building is currently on track to receive this Platinum certification, as well as achieve very high levels of energy efficiency, and site sustainability. The project has a highly sustainable site and building design that encompasses all areas of the general criteria points listed for consideration for the 2012 Virginia Beach Planning Commission Design Award Application. Virginia Beach City Public Schools has exceeded every minimum responsible and required development practice to minimize negative environmental impact and produce benefits to the environmental community: Runoff reduction, storm water treatment, water collection and reuse, erosion and sediment control, tree preservation, native landscaping, preservation of natural resources, development and restoration of natural habitat, and incorporation of outdoor activity and teaching areas. Additionally, pedestrian and bicycle access is featured. These sustainable construction practices, energy efficiencies, use of resources, materials, and design are evident throughout the project.

3 PROJECT DESCRIPTION The new school was built on the site of the existing College Park Elementary. This allowed the school to remain open while the project was under construction. The new school is 2 story to reduce its development footprint, and be more adaptable as a prototype for future elementary school replacements. Admin Gym PROJECT DATA TOTAL PROJECT COST: $22,148,750 BUILDING AREA: 94,000 SF GRADE SPAN: PRE K - 5 STUDENT POPULATION: START DATE: FEBRUARY 2010 COMPLETION DATE: August 2011 Classroom wing Cafe First floor plan EARLY ARCHITECT S RENDERING DEPICTING CAMPUS-LIKE APPROACH TO SCHOOL AND SITE DESIGN

4 How has the project enhanced its context and contributed to the City s overall quality of life & livability? ENHANCING THE COMMUNITY The local neighborhoods and community were reconnected to the project site through walkways and bike paths. These paths turn into decked walkways that run along newly constructed integrated wetlands, native gardens, and green play areas. Outdoor teaching areas are used by school teachers regularly, but also serve as natural focal points centered around native species, the water cycle, and ecological processes. Tables outside the cafe look out over gardens maintained by the students, the space is used during lunch as an outdoor classroom. Dozens of tours have already been taken with hundreds of visitors interested in the sustainable features and systems used to create the project. The new College Park Elementary School provides an excellent opportunity for educating building occupants, as well as the local community, about environmental issues related to sustainable building design and construction. Educational outreach through building tours and educational signage helps to create a learning center that connects to the community and teaches fundamental sustainable practices. Integrated wetlands at walkway decks and outdoor teaching gardens connect to community neighborhoods. There is a renewed sense of civic pride in the neighborhood, and the building doubles as an emergency shelter. College Park Elementary School will be the first school to achieve LEED Platinum status in the region.

5 How has the project established a lasting, positive impression in the City and enhanced economic vitality? Decks along integrated wetlands and rain buffer. Interior walkway along wetlands. Typical kindergarten classroom. VALUE TO VIRGINIA BEACH The new College Park Elementary School was built to replace the aging but well loved existing school. The community, neighborhoods, stakeholders, and friends of College Park Elementary were brought in early during the design process. The communities watched as the new state-of-the-art school was being built behind the existing school. The school s openness to the community allows it to reinforce it s positive message of sustainability. The project was designed and built to be comparable to any first class primary or secondary school bring built nationwide. The materials, sustainable systems, and site set it apart as one of a small handful of schools and buildings like it in our region. College Park Elementary has been visited by representatives from dozens of school districts across Virginia & North Carolina. Buildings of this caliber and design bring immediate value to the properties in it s area and the communities it serves. It is the best example to date of the Virginia Beach City Public School s commitment that sustainable planning and good design creates better communities, students, and adds significant value to the City of Virginia Beach.

6 How does the project feature a unique design, construction materials or construction processes? UNIQUE DESIGN College Park Elementary School is the first two story elementary school prototype for the City of Virginia Beach. The new two story school design presents an opportunity to maximize daylight, views, and relationship to the outdoors while decreasing it s ecological footprint. The project is sited with a true north orientation (with it s long axis running east-west.) This allows the building to control the sun with shading devices and to take advantage of passive solar, heating, and daylight in all seasons. The school has no double loaded corridors which means hallways are always open on one side by glass and windows for daylight and connection to the exterior. There are no dark hallways and 95% of the spaces in the school have natural light. The second floor becomes an atrium with balcony hallways that walk along windows looking into the constructed wetlands. The second floor classrooms step back from the first floor below so that each classroom has it s own roof garden area outside it s windows. A central green roof terrace is provided as a teaching and science area. The school is super insulated and designed to allow walls to breathe and be hydro-phobic to maintain clean healthy air throughout the school. The school s lights dim when daylight is present and utilize a combined geo/solar thermal system. When these items are combined with high performance walls, glazing, white roofs, and passive solar controls, the building now saves 55% of the energy use it would have typically consumed.

7 How does the project feature a unique design, construction materials or construction processes? CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS All interior finishes are low VOC paints, carpets, and sealants, with high recycled content in almost every building product. Regional materials were used where ever possible and account for over 30% of building materials. All wood used in College Park Elementary is sustainably forested and produced. Rapidly renewing species were selected. The brick chosen for the project was produced in Virginia and has 80% recycled brick. All furniture is green seal certified. Carpet tiles were selected for their green footprint and zero-waste manufacture. Green roof plant species are native species in native soils. Rain gardens and buffers are planted with native plants. Project brick contains 80% recycled brick. Wood panels are sustainably forested with high recycled content. Window seat in library.

8 f f How does the project feature a unique design, construction materials or construction processes? CONSTRUCTION PROCESS SITE PREPARATION ~ APRIL 2010 Note preserved woodlands and green zones. FOUNDATIONS ~ JUNE 2010 Use of minimal development and construction footprint. f INSTALLING UNDERGROUND SYSTEMS ~ JULY 2010 Rainwater collection Cisterns and Geothermal well fields stay within development area. f NOVEMBER 2010 Early installation of Raingarden stormwater infiltration zones ROOF MEMBRANES ~ FEBRUARY 2011 High reflectant white and breathable roof membranes (RED) GREEN ROOFS ~ AUGUST 2011 Green roofs installed outside 2 story classrooms, and as rooftop teaching area. f DEMOLITION OF OLD SCHOOL ~ AUGUST 2011 Concrete, block, and brick from old school was re-used as base for new parking lots SUN SHADING/SOLAR PANELS ~ OCTOBER 2011 Solar thermal panels mounted on daylight harvesting roof monitors, trees installed to shade over 50% of parking areas. FALL 2011 Native species plants installed in raingardens and outdoor teaching areas.

9 How has the project incorporated open space and protected the City s natural environment? PROTECTING THE CITY S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT The site is designed to be low maintenance by utilizing managed meadows, infiltration gardens for storm water (a net-zero storm water site) which reduces piping and structural storm water features, and by using native plant species that require no irrigation. This not only helps maintain the natural environment, but reduces resource consumption and restores native habitat to the site. This presents not only a significant cost savings in labor, equipment and fuel, but also a reduction in air pollution. Currently, mower equipment emissions alone account for 5% of the total U.S. air pollution according to the Environmental Protection Agency. By using native plants and legumes the need for fertilizer applications of nitrogen is eliminated and our receiving waters in the Chesapeake bay are spared. The trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants specified are all native to our region and are therefore well-suited to our climate, soils and pests and will likely require no interventions. The school was designed to sit back on the site to allow open space, lawn, playgrounds, and parks towards the front of the property. This fosters the feeling of being connected to nature through the adjacent wooded and naturalized areas while not sacrificing open space.

10 How has the project incorporated open space and protected the City s natural environment? PROTECTING THE CITY S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - cont The living green roof areas allow green roof plant species to self select and require less maintenance than a conventional roof. In order to limit the structural load and resulting costs a lightweight substrate is specified with a drip irrigation system fed only by harvested rainwater. The restored native landscape helps encourage wildlife indigenous to the area. Roofs are white to greatly reduce site heat island effects, white concrete is used, and native trees are planted to shade over 50% of the paved areas to reduce heat island effect on the ground. The roofs collect rainwater and serve all the toilets and non-potable water sources in the building. This saves about 500,000 gallons of water a year. The building uses 55% less energy than a building built to code. This represents a large annual reduction in operating costs, pollutants, and CO2 emissions, as well as a cleaner building for the inhabitants and the community. Second floor classrooms with green roofs, and the native species they inspire. White roof/reflectant metal roofs with clerestory windows for daylight.

11 How has the project created a human-scale environment? SCALE OF DESIGN College Park Elementary is first experienced as a series of covered walkways. It s rooms are all along this walkway, and respond to engage the student learner and teacher on a human scale. Designed for kids aged 4-12 Architecturally stepped classroom wing brings the scale down. Allows for green roofs, out side classrooms, (further reducing scale down too the student,) and allows the classrooms to stand out and be identified rather than part of a large mass. Canopies and balcony walkways cover to bring the scale down to a walking scale of a park, and help keep the perceived scale of a two story building at the inhabitant level. Sloped and contoured ceilings keep high volume spaces interesting, but not vacuous and intimidating for kids. Balconies, walkways, and hallways encourage students to feel they are not small in giant spaces, moving freely in spaces scaled at their level along walls of glass that connect them to the outside. Classrooms are not numbered, they are given a native plant, insect or animal species. Finally, signs indicating sustainable practices, native wildlife, and murals are used at the level of the student.

12 How has the project integrated attractive public facilities and roadways? How has the project offered safe, well-planned and attractive pedestrian ways? SUBURBAN MOBILITY INDICATES WALK/BIKE CONNECTIONS TO THE FOUR PRIMARY NEIGHBORHOODS. The four primary community neighborhoods in and around CPES are interconnected by bike and walk paths, sidewalks, and open space. Unique to this area of the city, the walk/bike paths run behind the houses through every neighborhood. The project intercepts these pathways and sidewalks, re-connects them, and brings them into the site, through the projects open space,, rain gardens, and playgrounds, before continuing their journey. Rather than being a destination dead end, CPES s site circulates the community through new wetlands, ballfields, forests, and covered walkways. This design protects and enhances the existing infrastructure of small bridges, waterways, and regularly used paths.

13 Sustainable Development ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP The project addresses and meets a majority of all the credits in the LEED rating system for New Construction. The categories and current points are: Sustainable Sites 10 points Water Efficiency 6 points Energy and Atmosphere 14 points Materials and Resources 9 points Indoor Environmental Quality 19 points Innovation in Design 6 points 64 points The current total of 64 points achieves a LEED Platinum rating, the highest that can be awarded. College Park Elementary School uses 55% less energy than a typical building. The project site design creates a net-zero storm water site; meaning ALL storm water runoff from building and site is treated on site up to a 100 year storm.

14 Sustainable Development SUSTAINABLE FEATURES: WATER USE Three (3) 15,000 gallon underground storage tanks supply roughly 98% of the water required to run toilets and non-potable water uses in the building. Through this use of rainwater and low flow fixtures, the project saves more than 500,000 gallons of water annually. Because the rainwater is stored in underground tanks, the water supplements the geothermal system for HVAC. 80% of all the roof surfaces are used to collect rainwater, which diverts this water from becoming building run-off storm water. STORMWATER & WATER CYCLE Underground rainwater harvesting storage tanks. The remaining 20% of roof surfaces feed rainwater to the integrated wetlands through a downspout system in the center rain garden, or is handled by the green roof. A canopy covers the walkway around this central area, and allows students and visitors to watch rainwater be collected from the high roof into downspouts, be carried across the canopy, where it then falls into bowls that allow the water to drain into the rain garden for infiltration. Water cycle from roof to rain gardens, integrated wetlands during a rain storm. Construction photo looking from roof into central rain garden. Green roof at rooftop teaching area, note rainwater harvesting filter.

15 Sustainable Development SUSTAINABLE FEATURES: ENERGY EFFICIENCY COLLEGE PARK ELEMENTARY SAVES ROUGHLY 55% MORE ENERGY THAN A TYPICAL BUILDING DESIGNED TO THE ENERGY CODE DOES. THIS REPRESENTS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS SAVED PER MONTH, AS WELL AS THOUSANDS OF TONS OF POLLUTANTS NOT PUT INTO OUR ENVIRONMENT. THE PROJECT SAVES ENERGY BY: (110) 300 deep geothermal wells and efficient pumps for HVAC systems. Solar thermal array on the roof that provides heating for 50% of the floor area through radiant in floor heating. Locations of primary geothermal well fields. Daylight harvesting that dims building lighting when daylight is present, and uses occupancy sensors to turn lights on and off. Use of LED lighting fixtures. High performance glazing and super insulated walls and roofs combined with proper building orientation. Reflectant white roofing and green roofs. Displacement (low velocity) air distribution system that greatly reduces fan energy use and provides quiet classrooms. Owner and user awareness programs to reduce plug loads, use temperatures setbacks, and team maintenance to keep lighting use down. Solar thermal that feeds in floor radiant heating to 50% of the project floor area.

16 Sustainable Development ENERGY EFFICIENCY cont d Daylight harvesting in classrooms: Sloped ceilings to draw light into the space - note light is off because of auto dimming when daylight is present. High performance ultra clear glazing insulates and blocks harmful light.

17 Sustainable Development ENERGY EFFICIENCY cont d Building orientation and overhangs/ shades provide natural light and views to 95% of interior spaces. Public spaces and hallways use radiant floor heating from the solar thermal panels on the roof. Note lights are dimmed almost completely off by daylight harvesting sensors.

18 Sustainable Development SUSTAINABLE FEATURES: BY THE NUMBERS OVER 95% OF CONSTRUCTION WASTE DIVERTED FROM DISPOSAL OVER 30% OF RECYCLED CONTENT USED OVER 20% REGIONAL MATERIALS USED OVER 50% OF HEATING ENERGY USED BY THE SCHOOL SUPPLIED BY SOLAR THERMAL 70% LESS ENERGY USED FOR LIGHTING 55% MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT THAN REQUIRED BY CODE 100% OF STORM WATER AND RUN-OFF HANDLED ON SITE 500,000 GALLONS OF WATER SAVED PER YEAR 1 ACRE +/- OF NATURAL HABITAT PRESERVED 1 ACRE+/- OF NEW NATURAL HABITAT CREATED

19 WHY WE CHOSE THIS PROJECT Virginia Beach City Public Schools is committed to sustainable and responsible design in education. It is our goal that the students and communities of Virginia Beach will not only learn sustainable practices but be able to experience them first hand, make it part of their lives, and teach others.