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 26, 2013
13 must-attend continuing education sessions at BUILDINGChicago
Building Design+Construction's new conference and expo, BUILDINGChicago, kicks off in two weeks. The three-day event will feature more than 65 AIA CES and GBCI accredited sessions, on everything from building information modeling and post-occupancy evaluations to net-zero projects and LEED training. Here are 13 sessions I'm planning to attend.
| Aug 22, 2013
Energy-efficient glazing technology [AIA Course]
This course discuses the latest technological advances in glazing, which make possible ever more efficient enclosures with ever greater glazed area.
| Aug 14, 2013
Five projects receive 2013 Educational Facility Design Excellence Award
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has selected five educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards.
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Aug 12, 2013
New York’s first net-zero school will be a sustainability lab for city school system
An elementary school on Staten Island will be the first net-zero energy school in New York City and the Northeast. The school is designed to use half the energy of a typical New York public school. Construction will be completed in 2015.
| Aug 8, 2013
Energy research animates science sector [2013 Giants 300 Report]
After an era of biology-oriented spending—largely driven by Big Pharma and government concerns about bioterrorism—climate change is reshaping priorities in science and technology construction.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Affiliated Engineers, Middough, URS top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
HDR, Perkins+Will, HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Skanska, DPR, Suffolk top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Aug 6, 2013
Renovation of Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study yields oldest LEED-certified building in U.S.
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study recently achieved LEED-NC v3 Gold certification for its renovation of the historic Fay House, making it the oldest LEED-certified building in the United States.
