DLR Group teams with Colorado State for K-12 research study
DLR Group and the Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) at Colorado State University have released the findings of a research project that evaluated the effect of green school design on occupants and long-term building performance.
The overwhelming perception of school staff is the learning environments within DLR Group schools have a positive impact on health, achievement, and behavior. The findings also show schools designed by DLR Group are more energy efficient, provide more space per student, and are constructed for less cost compared to regional averages for schools constructed during the same year.
“Design does not stop when the school opens. The design process must include coming back to a project to measure building performance,” said DLR Group Senior Principal Jim French, AIA, the firm’s national K-12 practice leader. “If both the tangible metrics of energy efficiency and the intangible metrics of student and occupant satisfaction are not being evaluated, then as design professionals we are not truly meeting the needs of our K-12 clients.”
The complete report, titled, Linking Performance & Experience – An Analysis of Green Schools, can be downloaded here.
DLR Group’s First LEED Platinum Project
College of St. Benedict achieves LEED platinum certification
The new resident townhome project at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., is more than a place for students to live; it is a place that will prepare them for their futures. Developed specifically for college seniors, the townhomes are designed to foster independence and increase understanding of the responsibilities of ‘real-world’ living. Students are responsible for maintaining the homes, monitoring utility use and helping with everyday tasks such as snow removal.
The complex is designed to reflect a typical residential environment and blend in with the growing neighborhood while providing a direct connection to the main campus. The townhomes are organized around a courtyard to help foster a community attitude and provide a neighborhood identity. Outdoor porches, fire pit and outdoor kitchen also contribute to community sensibilities. The commons building, located between the main campus and the new neighborhood, is designed as an iconic transition point between the two entities.
This project is DLR Group’s first LEED-certified building using LEED for Homes. DLR Group’s integrated design approach was key to achieving LEED points, along with designing to a commercial-level standard of materials and systems, rather than a residential-level standard, which is typically less rigorous. High points were earned for a solid envelope/insulation, high-efficiency water, heating and cooling systems, building location and linkages to surrounding buildings, landscape and site work, and Energy Star light fixtures and appliances.
Day Five – Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Today began with an early morning flight to Eldoret. Eldoret is a small city located about 200 miles northwest of Nairobi.
Upon Arrival, we headed into the slums surrounding the city. Our destination was the Jamii School. Started 5 years ago by Basilus and his wife Esther, the school now serves over 400 students in the surrounding area. The school itself looks a lot like the homes in the surrounding neighborhood: simple wood posts and limbs for the structure, and corrugated metal for the walls and roof. Despite the conditions, the school is a haven for its students. It’s a safe place for them to come together, and learn, and for some, it’s a guarantee for a daily meal they might not otherwise get. The school is crowed, though. In some of their classrooms, there are nearly 60 students, and they’ve a projected need for at least 3 more full classes of 45 students.
Despite the conditions, it’s clear both the students and teachers are extremely dedicated to being there and learning and teaching. In fact, on national exams, the students at Jamii are outperforming the students at the elementary school serving Eldoret town.
To address the pressing need for more space, the school has purchased a site a few blocks away, twice as big as their existing property. Though they ultimately plan to build a permanent two or three story structure on the new site, the immediate need is for enough semi-permanent structures on their new site to allow them to transfer all their classes to the new site, so they can stop paying rent and begin work on the permanent building. We spent the next few hours going over options for how best to phase their work, and how best to invest the time and resources for the semi-permanent construction.
As we were preparing to leave, the teachers and students at the school had a special treat for us. All 400 students gathered in the central courtyard, greeted us, and then proceeded to sing for us. Though I’d had a couple days to get used to the welcomes we were receiving from the communities we were visiting, this was by far the most endearing.
Days Three and Four
January 28-29, 2013
Our primary meeting for Day 3 was with David Gatende, Deputy CEO at Davis & Shirtliff. D&S is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of solar panels, wind generators (domestic scale), and solar hot-water panels, and bore-hole (well) equipment in Eastern and Central Africa.
David, and members of his staff explained to us the state of the solar industry in Kenya (note: all new homes are required to have solar hot water), and shared what the most appropriate systems for our project would be. It was interesting seeing such a forward thinking policy applied in a developing country, when it is such a challenge to get similar policies considered at home.
Day Four.
We began the day by heading south to Langata. There is a large government housing project here, that houses almost 10,000 people. This project, called NHC Langata court, is located directly adjacent to Kibera, the second largest urban slum in Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibera). Estimates, widely varied, put the population of Kibera anywhere from 107,000 (2009 census) to 2 million.
From here we continued on to our first appointment, a meeting with Patrick, a retired pastor who now runs Oikos-Kenya (part of the Hope Teams International group). Patrick’s group is working to address the many issues facing the displaced youth in the area, abandoned or orphaned as a result of the ongoing AIDS Epidemic.
Though the original purpose of our meeting was to see if our housing concept could be adapted to Patrick’s site, it became clear during the meeting that they would need a different solution. Though we didn’t end up providing a new solution for Patrick, we were able to sit and review the design they used for their existing building, and make some recommendations on how it could be easily modified to meet their evolving needs.
In the late afternoon, we returned to the heart of Nairobi, where we met with Joseph Njoroge. Joseph was the contractor for the New Dawn project (See Day 1). Joseph is a wealth of information and was able to provide a lot of insight regarding building techniques appropriate to our project in Kangundo. It was really great to sit and discuss the design and the project goals with someone that could provide a knowledgeable, local perspective. I’ve much to share with the rest of the team when I return to the office!
Dan Murray in Kenya to finalize pro-bono design of vocational campus.
Architect Dan Murray and several employees in DLR Group’s Seattle office have launched a pro-bono design project with Kizimani, a grass roots organization established by Kenya natives that is based in Portland, Ore.
Kizimani provides assistance to impoverished areas of Kenya. Murray and the Seattle team are designing a vocational school campus to support the impoverished Kangundo community in Kenya.
The concept for the vocational school campus responds to trades and industries prevalent in central Kenya. The overarching goal is to help people in Kangundo become self-sufficient and end the cycle of poverty that today defines the community.
The campus plan includes two classroom buildings, a clinic, and a retail space to sell items made on site. Phase I will establish a scalable prototype for classroom buildings and provide an overall site design for outdoor programs as well as future campus development.
Murray will be in Kangundo from January 24-31 to complete the pro-bono design efforts. His trip was funded through a grant program administered by Senior Associates in the Seattle DLR Group office. His trip is model for future international pro-bono projects. As the work continues, the project team will track their time and effort, and also catalog how design can have a positive impact on a global environment.
“This project has shown many of the next generation staff in our office, myself included, the value our profession and education truly provides. We’re not one of a half dozen architects clamoring to get a fee to do this work, where the value of our skillset is clouded by the need to compete for fee. In our pro-bono effort, the value we bring to Kangundo and Kizimani is seen in stark relief, and it is powerful,” said Murray.
Murray will be posting his experiences and impression from Kenya at this site. Please check back to follow his progress.
Kenya Day Two
January 27, 2013
Our second day in Kenya began with a drive out to Tala, to visit the Upper Manza Community Center. The UMCC began in 2007 in an effort to bring clean water and community identity to the area east of Tala. At the time, the Upper Manza region consisted of scattered residences, with little or no services provided, and little or no sense of identity. The most important of these missing services, was clean water. In 2007, 35 members of the community formed a committee, and began a project to address these needs. Now, 6 years later, they have succeeded in procuring and installing, by themselves, a well, pump, tank and distribution system. Through this system they provide clean, fresh water directly to 356 homes in the area. Their new Community Center also provides a meeting space to discuss community issues and plan future initiatives, and also a testing ground and model for projects community members can execute on their own (for example, they have a model and drip irrigation system, that can be easily replicated on an individual level).
From the UMCC, we visited the site of the temporary clinic for the Kangundo Project. One of the primary services the Kizimani Organization provides to the Kangundo Community is an annual medical examination. Doctors from the US, and Nairobi, visit the Kangundo site for 3 days, and during those 3 days see nearly 1,000 people, for whom access to medical services is difficult or impossible.
One of the next steps for our team, in Seattle, will be to help finalize a quick design for this site, as they will start building here in April, with the goal of having this clinic up and operational by August.
While on site, we met with Isaac, the individual donating the land for the clinic, and the school project. Isaac, is a retired newspaper man, that now operates his family farm. It is a portion of this farmland that will be donated for the school. The rest of the afternoon was spent touring the site with Isaac, and evaluating different options for the design of the campus and temporary clinic. More on that to come!
Day One in Kenya
Saturday, Jan 26, 2013
I spent today with Nelly and her Husband Nick. They manage Kizimani’s projects locally. We started by viewing another school project, recently done, in the Nairobi area. The project, “New Dawn”, is a high school serving an impoverished area adjacent to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Nairobi. The juxtaposition of the two neighborhoods is quite striking. On one side, you have all the residences for the members of all the foreign embassies, many at 5,000 – 7,000+ SF. On the other, a slum, with shacks cobbled together from found materials, with no power or running water. However, the New Dawn project is a beacon in this slum. Completely supported through donations, the high school serves 160 students from the surrounding slum, and sees 25% of those students qualify for admission to the state university.
The construction for this school is different from what we’re looking at. Made from donated shipping containers, the project is a great example of using available resources in an innovative manner.
The school was constructed in 2 phases. The first, completed in 2006, was made of four shipping containers. The containers were arranged, two by two on the first floor, with the interior panels of each pair cut out, and the seams of the adjoining containers welded together. The removed panels were then used to construct the exterior walls of the second story classrooms. The result was a wide classroom, that seats 40 students.
The second phase was a little different, each classroom on the 1st and 2nd floor was still made of a pair of shipping containers, with the removed panels used elsewhere in the project. But the changed how they finished the interior surfaces, and actually left a gap between the containers, and in-filled that gap with wood construction, that allowed for all the utility routing to be concealed.
The project was a great example of applying lessons learned from one phase to the next.
We spent a fair amount of time going over some of the construction techniques used. Even though this is a different construction system that what we’re proposing, New Dawn is a great indicator of the methods, systems and materials at our disposal.
What was also remarkable about the New Dawn campus was how they used every square inch of their property. They grow greens and onions on site, in both an open field and a green house. The have 3 cattle for milk production, and they use the manure to provide bio-gas (methane) for the kitchen. The have to purchase beans and corn for the kitchen, but all the other ingredients for the school meals are grown on site.
Though we’ve discussed the possibility for growing food on our site, and integrating areas for it in our site design, it was great to see an example already built and up and running.
After New Dawn, it was time for a brief tourist experience: a trip to the Giraffe Sanctuary. The giraffes in the sanctuary have all been rescued from recently developed lands or poachers. They are extremely friendly and gentle.
Results of the Charrette to Define the School of 2025
Thanks to everyone who attended our session on the School of 2025 at the Learning Environments Conference in Orlando January 30.
Below are three concepts discussed in the breakout groups.
Parent University: One group discussed Parent University, a concept to offer resources and tools for parents to re-educate themselves and be actively engaged in their child’s learning and lessons. In this scenario, learning would occur 24/7, not just during the traditional school day setting of 2013.
Center of Community: Another group talked about how schools would become the center of the community and should reflect real world lessons. This group discussed whether or not a school building would be necessary in 2025, but the group ultimately decided a building would support the concept of the community hub and gathering spot.
School City: One group of higher education professionals and designers proposed a School City that would create an environment that pairs personal interests with local businesses and organizations in a master planned community. The campus would be interwoven with the local community and leverage partnerships with businesses, restaurants and organizations. In this scenario, a student interested in culinary arts would spend part of their day in various restaurants learning the craft of cooking, as well as the business of operating a restaurant.
Watch for more detailed information about our session and photos soon.
Thanks to our charrette facilitators, including DLR Group professionals Jim French, Bill Taylor, Todd Ferking and Tim Wagoner; as well as Dr. David Peterson, Superintendent of Scottsdale USD (Ariz.); Tony Monetti, Superintendent of Roseville High School District (Calif.); and Mike Bosley, Executive Dean of Valencia College (Fla.)
KANGUNDO VOCATIONAL SCHOOL PROJECT
These are some of the images from the early design work we’ve done on the project. The site plan shows what the site will be after Phase I and Phase II are complete.
Public Building Commission- Engine Company 109 Firehouse
Under Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Neighborhoods Alive program the Chicago Fire Department and the Chicago Public Building Commission are jointly bringing advanced new fire houses to every part of Chicago.
Engine Company 109 Firehouse is a new, a new one-story, 14,670 SF facility consisting of steel framing with exterior brick veneer, a burnished block interior, and terrazzo flooring replaces a station that dates back to 1907.
Certified LEED Gold, examples of sustainable features include:
- A green roof that reduces storm water runoff.
- On-site storm water retention system repurposes water for washing fire trucks and irrigation Permeable paver parking lot aids in the management of storm water on site.
- Drought tolerant landscaping
- Geothermal heat pump mechanical system
Engine Company 109 offers accommodations for up to 20 firefighters, which includes four officer quarters. An apparatus bay with three inbound and outbound doors service all fire vehicles. Also part of the site development is fenced parking for 23 vehicles and site landscaping.
