By Fay Harvey
ROSEDALE, Md.— As a new school term begins, Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) has officially opened the first new middle school built in the growing eastern Baltimore County area in more than 50 years.
The green, energy-efficient Nottingham Middle School was completed in early June and officially welcomed its first students in the fall semester. The 207,288-square-foot, $90.7 million project was constructed in response to overcrowding in the county’s existing middle schools. It can comfortably serve up to 1,410 students and 130 staff members across nine pods in the academic wing. Each pod contains standard classrooms, collaborative learning spaces and extended learning areas.
The project was designed by national firm Moseley Architects, which also led the structural engineering, sustainability and interior design efforts. Civil engineering was managed by Site Resources, while Burdette Koehler Murphy & Associates handled the mechanical, electrical and plumbing work.
Prioritizing sustainability
The project team and county officials not only considered the fast-growing communities of northeast Baltimore County in design conversations, but also prioritized sustainability goals in early integrative design planning.
Nottingham Middle School was designed and built to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standards and does so in contractual obligation between the project team and BCPS.
“The project team used LEED as a framework to prioritize strategies that would contribute to a healthy, high-performance building,” said Bill Brown, principal with Moseley Architects. “The integrative process that is encouraged in the LEED Rating System pushed our team to meet early and often about foundational issues such as energy performance and water conservation.”
During schematic design, the team established aggressive but attainable energy performance targets that informed decision making throughout the design and construction phases.
“The final energy model indicates more than a 25% energy cost savings compared to a baseline model, qualifying the project for a Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR label,” Brown added. “This suggests that BCPS will save approximately $75,000 annually on energy bills.”
In addition to energy saving, Nottingham Middle School is also designed to reduce water use. Through efficient interior plumbing fixtures and fittings and ENERGY STAR commercial food service equipment — as well as eliminating irrigation from the site and the need for a water tower — water modeling indicates that interior plumbing fixtures and fittings will save approximately 30% more water than a minimally code-compliant building.
Sustainability benefits school community and beyond
The effects of sustainability will not only benefit the natural environment; students, staff members and even community members will feel the positive impacts of the school’s LEED wellness-related strategies, Brown added. These include locating the school within walking distance to basic services to promote physical activity, while prioritizing open space within the school campus.
“More than 50% of the site maintained an open space status, and approximately two-thirds of that open space is vegetated,” Brown said. “Non-vegetated open spaces serve as recreation space.”
Wellness also comes into play through the school’s acoustic performance, particularly through the reduction of background noise in core learning spaces to support instruction and learning. Additionally, more than 80% of regularly occupied spaces and over 30% of non-regularly occupied spaces have direct access to quality views to the outdoors.
Even the school’s environment is a breath of fresh air ¾ literally. Designers implemented advanced indoor air quality (IAQ) measures, utilizing a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value 13 to filter outdoor air and capture bacteria, wildfire smoke, and respiratory droplets. At the same time, the design isolated areas like janitor closets that are used for chemical storage. Carbon dioxide monitors further support adequate ventilation in high-occupancy spaces, such as classrooms and conference rooms. Walk-off mats also line all building entrances to minimize debris and dirt inside the facility, ensuring clean surfaces to mix with clean air.
Other sustainability and occupant experience considerations include the use of geothermal heating and cooling, and LED lighting controls that reduced interior Lighting Power Density from an allowed 0.99 watts per square feet to a designed 0.55 watts per square feet. Smaller energy savings were realized through exterior lighting, pumping efficiencies, and ventilation fans. These design strategies greatly reduce the carbon footprint of the school’s infrastructure. Reduced exterior lighting also reduces light pollution.
“Baltimore County Public Schools remains committed to providing school facilities that are second to none,” BCPS Superintendent Myriam Rogers said at the Nottingham Middle School ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Advanced, welcoming, comfortable, spacious, conducive to learning and environmentally friendly.”
This feature was previously published in September/October edition of School Construction News.