A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on August 6 for NeoCity Academy in Kissimmee, Fla., the state’s first net-zero K-12 school.
The 44,820-sf STEM school, which opens officially on August 12 for 500 students, is designed and built to use 76% less energy than a regular school, and to save $115,000 per year in energy costs. Little Diversified Architectural Consulting was the design architect and SE on this project.
NeoCity Academy’s features include a roof that hosts 650 self-ballasted solar panels that will produce 228 kW of energy. The school is targeting an Energy Use Intensity rate of 20, compared to the 65-75 EUI rate of an average building.
For Philip Donovan, Little’s project architect, NeoCity Academy is his third net-zero school. “Every project faces challenges,” he tells BD+C. “With a project like NeoCity, they are often encountered as we evaluate and choose what may be new systems and details that are not typical for client stakeholder groups or building contractors.”
At NeoCity Academy, the Building Team chose a concrete tilt-wall building envelope with 7¼-inch panels that are secured to one another and the structural steel infill; punched storefront openings, and a code minimum TPO roofing system. A very low air leakage rate was specified to allow for a reduction in the size of the mechanical systems. To ensure the building skin is as tight as possible, a new approach to the building joints, at locations where the envelope would be weakest, deployed low-tech sealant components to create redundant series of seals.
Donovan adds that Gilbane Building Company, the project’s CM at Risk, did a “tremendous job” coming up with a step-by-step manual for each detail type, which ensured that every subcontractor knew what its work should look like and what every other scope of work should look like in connection to its own.
The 44,820-sf, three-story K-12 school will serve 500 students. Image: Little
The three-story school took 16 months to design and build, at a construction cost of $13,292,000. It was delivered on time and within budget. And the building is expected to produce more energy than it consumes. The Building Team included CMTA (MEP, fire alarm engineer), Redmon Design (landscape architect), and Hanson Walters (CE).
“We have proven that there is a more cost- and energy-efficient way to build schools with minimal premiums,” says Marc Clinch, Chief Facilities Officer for Osceola School District. “The high-performance component at NeoCity Academy represents a less than six-year return on the investment and just an additional three years for the solar panels. This is phenomenal for a building that will be here for decades to come.”
The school includes an incubator/gathering area for students and teachers, and a “mixer” space that provides connections to the outdoors, the building system, and materials. The building is designed to be used as a teaching tool.
Instead of a cafeteria and to reduce operational costs, the school is incorporating a food cantina truck.
After BD+C posted this article, Clinch said that he had recently made a presentation about NeoCity Academy at an event conducted by the Florida Educational Facilities Planning Association, which represents 67 school districts in the state. “There was a lot of interest” in net-zero construction, he said. And Osceola School District has since conducted several school tours for representatives from other districts.
Clinch says that the cost of net-zero design and construction is “a no brainer” when one considers the savings in energy costs that, theoretically, could be diverted to paying teachers more at a time when school districts are struggling to control their operational costs.
He added that a key to building a successful net-zero school is building extensive and elaborate mockups, which in the case of NeoCity Academy helped to expose flaws in window installation and panel sealing before actual construction began.
Image: Little
Image: Little
Related Stories
Adaptive Reuse | Aug 14, 2024
KPF unveils design for repositioning of Norman Foster’s 8 Canada Square tower in London
8 Canada Square, a Norman Foster-designed office building that’s currently the global headquarters of HSBC Holdings, will have large sections of its façade removed to create landscaped terraces. The project, designed by KPF, will be the world’s largest transformation of an office tower into a sustainable mixed-use building.
Energy Efficiency | Aug 9, 2024
Artificial intelligence could help reduce energy consumption by as much as 40% by 2050
Artificial intelligence could help U.S. buildings to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, according to a paper by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Government Buildings | Aug 1, 2024
One of the country’s first all-electric fire stations will use no outside energy sources
Charlotte, N.C.’s new Fire Station #30 will be one of the country’s first all-electric fire stations, using no outside energy sources other than diesel fuel for one or two of the fire trucks. Multiple energy sources will power the station, including solar roof panels and geothermal wells. The two-story building features three truck bays, two fire poles, dispatch area, contamination room, and gear storage.
Geothermal Technology | Jul 29, 2024
Rochester, Minn., plans extensive geothermal network
The city of Rochester, Minn., home of the famed Mayo Clinic, is going big on geothermal networks. The city is constructing Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) that consist of ambient pipe loops connecting multiple buildings and delivering thermal heating and cooling energy via water-source heat pumps.
Smart Buildings | Jul 25, 2024
A Swiss startup devises an intelligent photovoltaic façade that tracks and moves with the sun
Zurich Soft Robotics says Solskin can reduce building energy consumption by up to 80% while producing up to 40% more electricity than comparable façade systems.
Codes and Standards | Jul 8, 2024
New York State building code update would ban fossil fuels in new buildings
New York’s Building Code Council is set to include the All-Electric Buildings Act in its 2025 code update. The Act would ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new buildings.
University Buildings | Jun 18, 2024
UC Riverside’s new School of Medicine building supports team-based learning, showcases passive design strategies
The University of California, Riverside, School of Medicine has opened the 94,576-sf, five-floor Education Building II (EDII). Created by the design-build team of CO Architects and Hensel Phelps, the medical school’s new home supports team-based student learning, offers social spaces, and provides departmental offices for faculty and staff.
HVAC | May 28, 2024
Department of Energy unveils resources for deploying heat pumps in commercial buildings
To accelerate adoption of heat pump technology in commercial buildings, the U.S. Department of Energy is offering resources and guidance for stakeholders. DOE aims to help commercial building owners and operators reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs by increasing the adoption of existing and emerging heat pump technologies.
K-12 Schools | Apr 30, 2024
Fully electric Oregon elementary school aims for resilience with microgrid design
The River Grove Elementary School in Oregon was designed for net-zero carbon and resiliency to seismic events, storms, and wildfire. The roughly 82,000-sf school in a Portland suburb will feature a microgrid—a small-scale power grid that operates independently from the area’s electric grid.
Codes and Standards | Apr 12, 2024
ICC eliminates building electrification provisions from 2024 update
The International Code Council stripped out provisions from the 2024 update to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) that would have included beefed up circuitry for hooking up electric appliances and car chargers.