By JOANIE BAKER HENDRICKS,
jhendricks@bgdailynews.com/783-3234

The new elementary school designed for the Ivan Downs area on Elrod Road may just be the most energy-efficient school building ever constructed.

 

The 80,000-square-foot building was designed to accommodate up to 750 students from Natcher and Rich Pond elementary schools when it opens in fall 2011. Construction is scheduled to begin in March, but like the two other schools currently gaining national recognition for their reduced energy consumption and capacity to produce clean solar panel energy, the new school plans to build on those energy-reduction efforts to become one of the most efficient school buildings in the country.

 

Kenny Stanfield, architect with Sherman Carter Barnhart, said the plans for Bristow and Richardsville elementary schools will enable the buildings to operate on a minimum energy rate with features such as geothermal heating and cooling. But what is gaining the attention of their designs as they move toward opening next school year, is their unique solar panel inclusion that will produce more clean energy for sale to the Tennessee Valley Authority than the buildings consume in traditional energy.

 

Stanfield said what is unique about the school at Ivan Downs is that unlike Richardsville and Bristow, architects did not have to design the building on the same property as existing schools and therefore did not have to position the planned building in a way that would allow the old school to continue operations. Having a blank slate, so to speak, of property has given architects the ability to create a school building where all the classrooms face south for maximum daylight and a decreased dependency on energy.

 

Stanfield said the new school was designed similarly to the other two buildings under construction, only with even more energy reducing capabilities. The Ivan Downs school, though not named officially, has the capacity to operate with solar panels if the school board decides to implement them down the road as more state and federal incentives make the panels more lucrative, Stanfield said. Because the school did not have to be designed around existing buildings, Stanfield said architects also were able to maximize the floor plan. Stanfield pointed out that Bristow was drawn to accommodate 50 fewer students than Ivan Downs, yet the new school was able to be designed with 3,000 fewer square feet because of its open property range.

 

The Ivan Downs school will break the energy-efficiency mold for sure. Unique to this school are sun tracker light processors, which are essentially 5-foot mirrors that use photo cells to track the natural sunlight throughout the day and rotate to disperse natural light into the building. Stanfield said the lighting causes almost a prism effect so it spreads the light evenly rather than in bright pinpoints.

 

The building’s aesthetics were also considered in an effort to blend it into the surrounding neighborhood, Stanfield said. A dark brick facade was chosen to give it a traditional look with alternating classrooms “stepped out” to break up the appearance of a large building. Stanfield said the renderings have been likened to a row of town homes, because of the careful steps to make it blend into a residential setting.

 

The elementary school will have one entrance with two loops for car and bus drop off, in an effort to maximize security, Stanfield said. While the building will have several exits, the lone entrance will enable school officials to more easily govern who is coming into the school at all times.

 

Stanfield said Ivan Downs will continue to add to Warren County Public Schools’ efforts to gain maximum energy efficiency while providing an addition to accommodate the district’s growth.

 

“We’ve reached a point where we are talking about a high-performance building, not just for its energy savings but the quality of classrooms itself,” Stanfield said. “It results in a better building in energy savings and environment for students and teachers.”