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. +
Related Stories
| Feb 22, 2011
HDR Architecture names four healthcare directors
Four senior professionals in HDR Architecture’s healthcare program have been named Healthcare directors.
| Feb 15, 2011
Iconic TWA terminal may reopen as a boutique hotel
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to squeeze a hotel with about 150 rooms in the space between the old TWA terminal and the new JetBlue building. The old TWA terminal would serve as an entry to the hotel and hotel lobby, which would also contain restaurants and shops.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 15, 2011
LAUSD commissions innovative prefab prototypes for future building
The LA Unified School District, under the leadership of a new facilities director, reversed course regarding prototypes for its new schools and engaged architects to create compelling kit-of-parts schemes that are largely prefabricated.
| Feb 15, 2011
New 2030 Challenge to include carbon footprint of building materials and products
Architecture 2030 has just broadened the scope of its 2030 Challenge, issuing an additional challenge regarding the climate impact of building products. The 2030 Challenge for Products aims to reduce the embodied carbon (meaning the carbon emissions equivalent) of building products 50% by 2030.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Urbanist Andrés Duany: We need a LEED Brown rating
Andrés Duany advocates a "LEED Brown" rating that would give contractors credit for using traditional but low cost measures that are not easy to quantify or certify. He described these steps as "the original green," and "what we did when we didn't have money." Ostensibly, LEED Brown would be in addition to the current Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings.
| Feb 15, 2011
AIA on President Obama's proposed $1 billion investment in energy conservation
The President’s budget increases the value of investment in energy conservation in commercial buildings by roughly $1 billion, reports AIA 2011 President Clark Manus, FAIA. The significant increase from the current tax deduction of $1.80 per sq. ft. now on the books is an increase for which the AIA has been advocating in order to encourage energy conservation.