Former Office Building Converted to Elementary School Could Achieve LEED Silver Certification

BRIGHTON, Mass. — Officials are hoping a renovated office building that was converted to serve as the main component of the new home for the St. Patrick School will be awarded LEED silver certification.

In addition to the 36,000-square-foot former office building, the new $10 million campus for first through eighth graders includes a new 14,000-square-foot gymnasium and a 6,000-square-foot lab and studio.

Teachers at the school, which opened in September, will incorporate many of the building’s sustainable design components into course curriculum.

A rooftop garden and weather station above the science lab can be seen from the lab below with a periscope. The flat-panel, periscope screen allows students to understand the benefits of the rooftop garden and visualize the runoff feeding the school’s lake. Storm inceptors will further improve runoff quality.

The school will also save water with waterless urinals, metered faucets, low- flow toilets, limited landscape irrigation and an efficient dishwasher in the school’s kitchen. Officials hope to reduce the use of the city’s water by up to 40 percent.

Rooftop HVAC units with energy recovery wheels were used to reduce the necessary tonnage to ventilate the school by approximately 30 percent. Sensors installed in the classrooms switch lights off when students and faculty exit the area. In addition, existing boilers were replaced with 95 percent efficient, condensing boilers.

Other green features include low-VOC finishes and building materials with an average of 28 percent recycled content. An average of 31 percent of materials was obtained from within a 500-mile radius of the construction site, and 90 percent of the existing building’s shell was used for the new project.