Richardsville Elementary

Bowling Green, KentuckyProject In Design

Elementary SchoolSherman Carter Barnhart

2009 Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture

Richardsville ElementaryBowling Green, KY

Town Center

Community Environment:Richardsville is a small, close knit community with the elementary school as its town center. A new school is long past due.

The School’s teachers and administrators were involved in the planning process of the facility, and have not only supported the School District’s goal of this school being the first net zero energy school in the United States, but have championed the cause, resulting in a newfound direction for community pride in the project.

Media Center

Community Environment: continued

Elements salvaged from the old school, such as parquet wood flooring and fieldstone, will be used in the new building, preserving some historic sentiment as well as earning points for its Platinum LEED certification.

The Media Center, Gym and Cafeteria will be open for after hours events and other community functions.

The new building will serve as an instructional site for students across the district and state to extend learning opportunities beyond the school and local community.

Energy Curriculum

Grade Level Time Warren County Unit NEED Unit

P1 Spring Physical Science: Position/Motion/Light/Sound

Primary Stories & More Entertaining stories and hands-on activities to introduce basic energy concepts, energy sources, and electricity to primary students.

P2 Spring Physical Science: Magnets/Electricity Exploring Magnets:Background information and hands-on experiments to explore the basics of magnets and magnetism.

P3 Spring Physical Science: Position/ Motion/Light/Sound

Primary Science of Energy:Explore fundamental concepts of energy, including motion, heat, sound and light with a series of simple activities.

P4 Spring Physical Science: Magnets/ Electricity Electro-Works Electricity: A backgrounder and hands-on experiments explore the basic concepts of atomic structure and electricity. Included are center-based experiments on static electricity, batteries, magnets, electromagnetism, and circuits.

4th Weeks 20 – 27

Heat, Sound, Light, Electricity Energy Works: Explore the basic concepts of energy and the tasks energy performs, including motion, light, sound, heat and growth

5th Weeks 19 – 24

Unifying Concepts – Energy Transformation (transfer of energy, heat, sound, light)

Science of Energy:

6th Various times Economics & Electricity What Car Will You Drive?:Explore conventional and alternative transportation fuels such as petroleum-based fuels, ethanol, electricity, bio-diesel, compressed natural gas, and propane

Building As A Teaching ToolLearning Environment: The building’s interior design elements reinforce the School District’s energy conservation goals and provide meaningful learning opportunities outside the traditional classroom. Themed hallways make the everyday experience of walking to class a “green” learning experience.

The “solar hallway” features a laptop computer charging station where students can see the energy being used by the building’s solar panels.

The “water conservation hallway” allows students to measure quantities of roof collected storm water as it filters through the site’s organic bio-swales before returning to the underground aquifer.

The “recycling hallway” features community collection bins for students to quantify collected materials and relate them to the global impact on the environment.

The “geothermal hallway” exposes color keyed piping manifolds with a temperature gauge allowing students to monitor the system’s performance. The temperature of water coming into the building from the ground is measured alongside water leaving the building to re-enter the ground. This creates the development of mathematical and scientific relationships relating to the geothermal system’s design.

Geothermal Hallway

Environmental ResponsibilityLearning Environment:By engaging the students through interactive learning, the building will demonstrate environmental responsibility and stewardship by example and engage children in monitoring the performance of the LEED Platinum buildings conservation and sustainable strategies. By meeting these design challenges, the facility will not only be energy, water and resource efficient, but will also provide a healthy, comfortable, and safe learning environment for students, staff and the community.

Completely wireless in its technology, literally any space within the facility, as well as outside, can become a computer aided laboratory. On the “climate control” patio, students can monitor current conditions at the weather station, and track the building’s “net zero” performance throughout the changing seasons.

Interactive Learning

Climate Control Patio

Daylight Modeling

Physical Environment –Active daylighting strategies for each classroom will reduce artificial light loads and provide a healthy, optimum learning environment. Exterior light shelves on the south facing classrooms reflect natural light into the space while the interior light shelves reduce glare. The north facing classrooms utilize roof mounted “solatubes” which provide light through vertical reflective chases in the ceiling. Due to these daylighting strategies, it is anticipated that the artificial lighting use will be decreased by 70%.

Energy Conservation

Physical Environment – continuedWith an emphasis on energy conservation and sustainability, the following strategies were incorporated to help achieve the school district’s net zero energy goal.• Insulated concrete form wall construction and high performance building envelope.• Geothermal HVAC with CO2 monitoring and de-centralized pumping.

• Active daylighting with light shelves and Solatubes®.• Compact two story design with reduced building volume.• Roof adhered thin film photovoltaic system.

Interactive Design Process

Planning Process:

The challenge to design the nation’s first net zero energy public school facility involved examining every aspect of the building that would potentially impacted energy consumption, both directly and indirectly. Through a collaborative process that involved all stakeholders, i.e. teachers, administrators, architects and engineers, the energy goals for the project were established before the design began, so all decisions that followed supported the goal of neutral energy through the use of conservation and sustainable strategies. These same strategies were found to work harmoniously with many LEED requirements, enabling the design team to pursue platinum certification and set a new standard for public education facilities.

Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2008 Project Data

Submitting Firm : Sherman Carter BarnhartProject Role ArchitectProject Contact Kenny Stanfield, AIATitle Principal In Charge/DesignerAddress 100 Mallard Creek Road, Suite 151City, State or Province, Country Louisville, Kentucky 40207Phone 502-721-6100

Joint Partner Firm: Not ApplicableProject RoleProject ContactTitleAddressCity, State or Province, CountryPhone

Other Firm: CMTA, Inc. Consulting EngineersProject Role Mechanical & Electrical EngineerProject Contact Ken Seibert, P.E.Title Principal Address 10101 Linn Station Road, Suite 530City, State or Province, Country Louisville, Kentucky 40223Phone 502-326-3085

Construction Firm: RG AndersonProject Role ConstructionProject Contact Craig JohnsonTitle PresidentAddress 1801 West End Avenue, Suite 1800City, State or Province, Country Nashville, Tennessee 37203Phone 615-329-1789

Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2008 Project Details

Project Name  Richardsville Elementary

City Bowling Green 

State Kentucky 

District Name Warren County Board of Education 

Supt/President Dale Brown, Superintendent 

Occupancy Date July 2010 

Grades Housed K – 5th 

 

Capacity(Students)   500 students

Site Size (acres)   13.79 acres

Gross Area (sq. ft.)   72,285 SF

Per Occupant(pupil)  144.53 SF

gross/net please indicate Gross 

 

Design and Build?  

If yes, Total Cost:  

Includes:  

 

If no,  

Site Development:   $2,100,000 (estimated)

Building Construction: $12,543,624  (includes actual site cost)

Fixed Equipment:  

Other:  

 

Total:  $12,543,624

The average American school designed to meet National Energy Codes will use approximately 73 kbtu’s per square foot of energy annually. To achieve the design team’s goal of being the nation’s first net zero energy public school, Richardsville Elementary School will consume only 17.7 kbtu’s per square foot of energy and incorporate a 300 kw photovoltaic array capable of providing 100% of the building’s energy needs.

The A/E team prioritized and implemented seven primary conservation and sustainable design goals to make Richardsville energy neutral and register for LEED Platinum certification.

By maximizing efficiencies in all building systems, the energy required for school operations will be offset by electrical energy collected from the photovoltaic panels, thus operating a net zero or energy neutral facility. The solar panels are designed to deliver energy to the grid when the energy production exceeds the needs of the school, such as summer months when school is not in session.

Targeting Net Zero

Targeting Net ZeroHigh Performance Building EnvelopeThe aspect of a high performance envelope began with the overall idea of a compact design, both in plan and volume. The reduced amount of perimeter wall characteristic of the resulting plan aided in reducing HVAC load. This load was further reduced by: eliminating large volumes of attic space; situating the high bay areas of the building – the gymnasium, cafeteria, and media center – in the center of the “doughnut” plan; and incorporating the heat pumps in mechanical closets between classrooms.

Super insulated ICF walls and an R-32 roof provided an efficient building envelope ultimately requiring much less energy to heat and cool the facility.

Active daylightingThe classroom daylighting strategy was two-fold: To provide interior and exterior light shelves attached to a clerestory window in each classroom, as well as Solatube skylights to enhance the second story spaces. In addition to these features, a large clerestory runs the full length of the building and harvests daylight for the main lobby, great hall, gymnasium, cafeteria, and media center.

Geothermal HVACA geothermal heating and cooling system, coupled with a distributive pumping strategy, will reduce the building’s energy consumption as well as reduce the area needed for the mechanical spaces. In addition, several geothermal units in the facility will be used solely for hot water generation, eliminating the need for traditional water heaters.

Alternate renewable energy sourceThin film solar voltaics will be situated on the roof of the facility, collecting sunlight and converting it to electricity to supply 300kw of power back to the grid. This amount of harvested energy will offset the total energy consumed by the school, resulting in an “energy neutral,” or Net Zero, facility. In addition, automated dimming controls, wireless computer technology, occupancy sensors, and CO2 monitoring will further reduce the overall energy needs of the school.

Efficient kitchen cooking strategiesThe kitchen energy management strategy involves several areas of concentration. First, providing Energy Star rated equipment will help reduce energy consumption. Second, by employing combi-ovens in lieu of traditional fryers, and thereby eliminating the Class II hood necessary for grease-laden vapors, make-up air required for the kitchen will be significantly reduced or possibly eliminated. An added benefit of the combi-ovens is that they also provide a healthier cooking alternative. Preparing and implementing an energy-conscious business operations strategy for the kitchen will further aid in energy conservation.

Operations and maintenance planDuring the development of the operations manual, a plan for building security, building after-hours use, and building maintenance was implemented. Environmentally friendly “green” finishes such as soy-based stained concrete and porcelain pavers were incorporated to reduce maintenance labor and energy consumption.