Boulder, CO – Boulder Valley School District learned earlier this week that the new Casey Middle School building has been awarded the highest level of certification from the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Casey is the first school in Colorado and one of only two middle schools in the nation to receive the platinum rating. LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. The school was constructed through Boulder Valley School District’s (BVSD) current $296.8 million Bond Program.
“Achieving the platinum status is a thrill and an honor,” said Casey Principal Alison Boggs. “It gives official recognition to what we already have seen to be true—green building creates an environment in which students and teachers thrive. We’ve already seen a noticeable drop in absenteeism and misconduct and our enrollment continues to grow.”
“One of the challenges with Casey was to rebuild an existing school on the same site, keeping its identity and history intact, yet improving its connection to the community and response to the environment,” says RB+B Architects’ Project Manager, Derek Young. “To address these challenges, we salvaged two exterior walls of the original 1924 school and returned them to their original glory, as well as repurposed the original wood gym floor as a wall finish. Numerous meetings engaged the community, staff, parents, and students throughout the design process resulting in a facility that maximizes community use and has pushed the project to achieve LEED Platinum.”
Just a few of the school’s sustainable features include:
- Solar photovoltaic panels provide solar electricity for the school and double as covered bicycle parking
- Sustainable materials, including materials that contain recycled content and low VOCs
- A roof garden which can be integrated into the school curriculum
- Natural daylighting with automatic light dimming systems
- A mechanical system that integrates a ground source heat pump with water to air heat pumps for 90% of the school’s heating and cooling needs
- Under building parking that helps reduce heat island effect and storm water runoff
The new Casey has consistently shown significant energy and water savings compared to the old Casey. This is especially impressive given the fact that the new Casey is 30 percent larger in size and has a much larger kitchen that serves other schools in the district.
Recently quoted in ColoradoBiz Magazine, Josh Radoff, Principal at YRG notes, “Casey Middle School… is dazzling in terms of its achievements, including preserving the historic façade, utilizing a difficult site to create a truly walkable neighborhood school, and finding a way to bring daylight into every nook and cranny of a three-story building.”
“Casey is the consummate example of sustainable building which has been a theme throughout the District’s recent construction projects,” said Don Orr, BVSD’s Assistant Superintendent of Operations. “We saw the Bond Program, which has provided renovations to every school in the District, as an opportunity to integrate sustainability and green building into our everyday operations and capital improvement projects.”
Many of the design concepts that have helped Casey achieve its platinum status, such as extensive daylighting, low flow fixtures and high performance windows and insulation, can be found in the other recent renovation projects in the District.
“We greatly appreciate the support from Boulder Valley taxpayers for all of the Bond projects, and financial contributions from the City of Boulder to pursue the LEED certification for Casey Middle School,” Orr said.
To learn more about Casey, take a virtual tour of the school, and see live data from the energy and water systems at the school, go to: http://casey.bvsd.greentouchscreen.com.
About Boulder Valley School District
Boulder Valley School District located in Boulder and Broomfield Counties in Colorado serves 28,000 students over 500 square miles. In the past two years, BVSD developed a Sustainability Management System (SMS) and has launched several “greenBVSD” initiatives. The SMS defines a vision, goals and strategies for achieving district-wide environmental sustainability, and serves as a roadmap for integrating these concepts into the curriculum and operations. For information about BVSD’s green initiatives, please visit http://bvsd.org/green/Pages/default.aspx or contact Ghita.Carroll@bvsd.org
About RB+B Architects, Inc.
Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, RB+B Architects has designed exceptional spaces for more than 55 years. The firm’s experience in sustainable, high performance design has resulted in design awards at the regional and national levels for educational, commercial, and civic buildings. For more information, visit www.rbbarchitects.com. RB+B Architects has been an innovative leader at the national level in the design of high performance educational facilities. Previous LEED Certified schools include Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, which was named the first LEED-NC building in Colorado (third in the nation) in 2005, and Bethke Elementary School, which was the first elementary in the nation to be rated under the LEED for Schools criteria (Gold) when it debuted in 2008.