The Middle School renovation and addition transforms an awkwardly-sited, undersized, fifty-year-old facility into an exterior and interior teaching landscape. The Middle School project is seeking LEED(tm) Platinum certification as a demonstration of Sidwell Friends' commitment to environmental stewardship through high-performance building design and operations. The landscape and building will co-exist within, and demonstrate, a broader network of systems. Human systems - our inter-relationships with resources - are embodied by the landscape and building as natural systems. The system itself, rather than a representation, is the ethic rendered aesthetic.
The Master Plan for the Sidwell Friends School, completed in 2001, outlines a phased transformation of the disparate collection of buildings on the Wisconsin Avenue campus into a physical demonstration of the school's values, founded in Quaker principle. Development is focused on re-establishing the landscape as a unifying context within which existing buildings and strategically sited additions form a purposeful and articulate whole.
The Middle School renovation and addition transforms an awkwardly-sited, undersized, fifty-year-old facility into an exterior and interior teaching landscape. The Middle School project is seeking LEED(tm) Platinum certification as a demonstration of Sidwell Friends' commitment to environmental stewardship through high-performance building design and operations. The landscape and building will co-exist within, and demonstrate, a broader network of systems. Human systems - our inter-relationships with resources - are embodied by the landscape and building as natural systems. The system itself, rather than a representation, is the ethic rendered aesthetic.
Land And Water
The development of the Middle School site will reestablish connections to local geology, watersheds and habitat. The campus sits on a ridge near the highest point in the District of Columbia, between two watersheds which flow through steep parks to the Potomac. Management of land and water resources will demonstrate the far-reaching effects of these systems.
Air And Energy
Through siting, orientation and reliance on natural lighting the Middle School demonstrates that the sun is the primary source of energy and a renewable source. A fundamental principle of the building design is to save energy first. The building optimizes the use of natural lighting and minimizes the need for mechanical cooling to effectively manage non-renewable energy use. The new Middle School uses 45% of the non-renewable energy that would be used by a normative building of the same size and in the same location and orientation.
The new Middle School also contributes to meeting the energy needs of the rest of the campus in an economically effective manner by housing a central utility plant in the basement of the addition. The central plant uses extremely-high-efficiency pulse boilers and modular chillers sized to take advantage of diversity factors in supplying other campus buildings. Because of the diversity of building use, centralized equipment can be smaller overall than would be required if each building contained a stand-alone plant.
Materials
Materials make reference to their sources throughout the building and landscape. Source knowledge, from cork flooring to exterior wood cladding, is an important educational objective. Priority is given to local and native species.
Scope Of Intervention
Development is focused on the north part of the campus to minimize the impact of new construction on the land, a scarce urban resource. The Middle School addition forms a courtyard which addresses the campus as a place and destination. The courtyard is one end of a planned route along the northern edge of the campus, linking each of the primary structures and exterior spaces.
The Middle School will fully integrate existing components with new building systems. The wood cladding of the addition carries over the existing building as sunshades, while the brick of the existing building reaches out around the base of the addition. Old is renewed and new is grounded in context. The building reaches out and gathers the landscape at entry points on the public side as well as on the school side. Building and landscape are integrated.
Collecting Water
The collection and diversion of rainwater at the building demonstrates the interconnection and complexity of the natural watershed. Rainwater is held and filtered through the vegetated roof on the addition. All water on both existing and new wings is diverted to the courtyard side of the building. A series of scuppers, open downspouts and gutters, flow forms and spillways direct rainwater to a biology pond which will support native habitat adjacent to the courtyard entry at the low point of the site, just as the Rock Creek watershed flows through the highlands down to the Potomac.
Recycling Water
The courtyard is developed as a constructed wetland designed to recycle wastewater from the building for reuse. The wetland takes the form of terraced rice paddies in response the topography of the site. The natural system is a demonstration of the food-waste-food cycle, as micro-organisms decompose the wastewater as it moves through the wetland.
Responding To Sunlight
The building is a compass, revealing orientation through the configuration of exterior sunscreens. At the north no screening is needed and north-facing windows fully admit diffuse light. At the south screening is most effective when placed horizontally above windows. At the east and west vertical sunscreens keep out glare when the sun is low.
Passive Energy Systems
Solar chimneys serving the specialty classrooms in the addition are designed for passive ventilation. South-facing glazing at the tops of the shafts heat the air within, creating a convection current which draws cooler air in through north-facing open windows. Portals in the shaftways within the building demonstrate the operation and effectiveness of the passive cooling system with a tell-tale that moves with the breeze and a wind chime.
The solar chimneys are also intended to be used in mechanical ventilation and air conditioning modes, demonstrating the responsiveness of both passive and active systems to the local climate.
Photovoltaics
Five percent of the overall building electrical load will be generated by photovoltaic panels located on the roof of the existing Middle School wing. Because the quantity of energy needed has been significantly reduced through the use of highly effective building systems, the quantity of PV panels can be optimized as well.
The vegetated roof of the addition has been developed as an outdoor classroom for container gardening, giving students the opportunity to see the PV panels from the gardening area on a regular basis. Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glazing is used as a feature on the south-facing wall of the addition. This technology will be visible from the Middle School entry bridge and courtyard.
Sustainable Materials
Building materials are largely reused, recycled, rapidly renewable and/or regionally acquired. The source knowledge for key materials such as cork flooring and bamboo casework is revealed by the integration of raw materials.
Facade
The exterior walls of the addition and the third floor of the existing building are clad with off-site-fabricated panels integrating R-30 insulating value, high performance operable windows, and exterior wood cladding and sunscreens. The wood is western red cedar, selected for its high durability and appearance, which will weather naturally to a silver gray. Reclaimed from fifty-year-old wine casks, the wood is of extremely high quality. The secondary source - the wine cask - is referenced in a bench near the courtyard entry made from part of the cask base. The original source is referenced in the several sunscreen boards permitted to extend to the ground near the entry, recalling the old-growth trees.
read more
