With hotter weather occurring during the school year, school districts are turning to cooling strategies to complement air conditioning.
Reflective playgrounds and roads, cool roofs and window films, shade structures and conversion of asphalt surfaces to a natural state are all being tried in various regions of the country. These measures are particularly important to help children cope with extreme heat because they sweat less and are more prone to dehydration than adults.
Some examples:
- A Los Angeles school district has spent $11.4 million to convert asphalt shingle roofs to white cool roofing since 2017.
- An Atlanta school received a donation from a roofing manufacturer of a bright blue, solar-reflective coating that reduced the temperature on a basketball court by 10 degrees.
- Between 2022 and 2023, California granted more than $121 million for schools to replace asphalt or turf or rubber mats with grass, gardens, mulch, and trees.
More projects like those will be necessary if climate-change-induced heat continues to rise as predicted.
Related Stories
| Aug 1, 2016
Top 100 K-12 School Architecture Firms
DLR Group, Stantec, and Huckabee top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest K-12 school sector architecture and A/E firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
University Buildings | Jul 22, 2016
Fast-growing UC Merced will double in size by 2020
The state’s Board of Regents has approved a $1.34 billion plan that would add nearly 1.2 million sf of new space.
Education Facilities | Jun 1, 2016
Gensler reveals designs for 35-acre AltaSea Campus at the Port of Los Angeles
New and renovated facilities will help researchers, educators, and visitors better understand the ocean.
Education Facilities | Apr 22, 2016
Developers announce updates for Schuylkill Yards, Philadelphia’s new innovation hub
Drexel University's $3.5 billion project will have mixed-use buildings, residential spaces, and educational and research facilities.
Education Facilities | Mar 28, 2016
Steven Holl wins invited competition to design Rubenstein Commons
The new Rubenstein Commons will be a 20,000-sf structure at the center of the campus for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.
Market Data | Feb 26, 2016
JLL upbeat about construction through 2016
Its latest report cautions about ongoing cost increases related to finding skilled laborers.
Market Data | Feb 10, 2016
Nonresidential building starts and spending should see solid gains in 2016: Gilbane report
But finding skilled workers continues to be a problem and could inflate a project's costs.
K-12 Schools | Feb 4, 2016
Grimshaw and BVN design 14-story public school in Australia
The design of the high-rise is based on the template of Schools-within-Schools (SWIS), a system that de-emphasizes age groups.
Education Facilities | Jan 26, 2016
Adjaye Associates, SHoP, and Snohetta selected as three finalists to design the National Veterans Resource Complex
Representatives of the firms will travel to Syracuse University to plan the next steps of their design processes
Market Data | Jan 20, 2016
Nonresidential building starts sag in 2015
CDM Research finds only a few positive signs among the leading sectors.
