CASE STUDY: Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Kirkland, Washington
Owner: Lake Washington School District
Architect: Mahlum Architects—Gerald Reifert, AIA, principal-in-charge; Anne Schopf, AIA, design principal; Mitchell Kent, AIA, project manager; David Mount, AIA, project architect
Consultants: Coughlin Porter Lundeen (civil/structural); Stantec (mechanical); Coffman Engineers (electrical); The Greenbusch Group (acoustical); Integrated Design Lab (lighting); Cascade Design Collaborative (landscape); SpeeWest Construction (general contractor)
SOURCES
Storefront & Curtainwall: Kawneer
Acoustical ceilings: Armstrong
Resilient flooring: Johnsonite
Carpet tile: Interface
Lighting controls: Leviton
Water-free urinals: Falcon
Classroom furniture: Virco
Millwork: Westmark Products
Product Profiles
Field of Vision
Sustainability, pedagogy, and a stand of Douglas firs combine in an elementary school tied to nature
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Ahead of the curve
The building was the district’s first project to embrace sustainability and was designed long before Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed ESSB 5009 in April 2005, requiring that schools and other state-funded buildings go green. Franklin Elementary opened that August, and the law has not yet been fully implemented. Even though the district was not compelled to build green, selling administrators on a day-lit school was not a struggle, Schopf says. “The statistics exist [showing] that daylighting improves academic performance.”
The shared learning areas (above) have a strong visual connection to the outdoors and the adjacent classrooms. Facilities like the library (below), and the gymnasium are used after school hours, on weekends, and during the summer by the community. Photo © Benjamin Benschneider.
The relationship between natural ventilation and performance is less well documented. However, forgoing air handling equipment was not a “difficult stretch, because the district is not cooling right now,” she adds. At Franklin Elementary, air flows via natural convection into rooms through louvers and is exhausted through operable windows and chimneys.
The approach provides both upfront savings on equipment and operating costs. And the absence of a traditional air handling system means that students are free from the distraction associated with mechanical noise.
Science project
Miller is collecting data for student test results, faculty retention, and absenteeism. He plans to compare it with data from the old Franklin Elementary and conventionally built schools to better understand the relationship between sustainable design and occupant performance.
Already on the energy front, after only one full year of occupancy, the district has documented significant savings. For the 2005-2006 academic year, total energy costs were about $1 per square foot, compared with $1.20 in the old school, despite a rise in rates, according to Miller. Lake Washington officials expect even greater savings this academic year after commissioning the building in May, and have already committed to deploying many of the strategies used at Franklin in the district’s next 11-school program, funded by a $463 million bond passed in early 2006.
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