Stoddert Elementary School in DC wins first US DOE Green Ribbon School Award

The Washington, DC office of Perkins Eastman joined the students, faculty, staff, and community of Stoddert Elementary School; the Department of General Services; and DC Public Schools in celebrating the school’s recognition for environmental sustainability with a first-ever US Department of Education Green Ribbon School award. Stoddert is one of 78 schools spanning 29 states to receive the recognition.

Designed as both a high performance, healthy, and sustainable environment and as a teaching tool, Stoddert Elementary School and Community Center enhances learning and inspires environmental stewardship, as well as serving as an inspiration for the entire community. The school, certified LEED for Schools Gold, enhances learning by optimizing acoustics, enhancing indoor air quality, providing for thermal control/comfort, providing pervasive natural light, and by actively engaging the students and community in understanding how the design conserves resources. Stoddert is first school in the District of Columbia to be fully served by a ground source heating and cooling (geothermal) system.

An interactive kiosk with content also available online, enables Stoddert’s students to analyze the building’s use of energy, water, and other resources. A student-led Energy Patrol guides tours of the building empowering students to teach what they have learned. +

The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.

Rainscreen system installed at the west building envelope expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

Energy performance starts at the building envelope

Rainscreen system installed at the west building expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

Turning Balconies Outside In

Operable glass balcony glazing systems provide solution to increase usable space in residential and commercial structures.

| Dec 10, 2011

BIM tools to make your project easier to manage

Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.