Ridgeview HS earns LEED Gold certification
Redmond School District’s newest construction, Ridgeview High School, has been awarded LEED® Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) provides independent certification that a building, home or community was designed and built in accordance with the following areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
Ridgeview High School was constructed with 2008 bond funds. Dull Olson Weekes-IBI Group Architects (DOWA-IBI) of Portland, Ore. designed the school in partnership with the district. The school was completed in the fall of 2012 at a final cost of $73 million, which was less than the originally budgeted $80 million.
“Our goal in designing Ridgeview High School was to provide a facility that addressed the district’s vision for innovation in education while minimizing the impacts to the environment,” shared Alina Graham, DOWA-IBI Designer. “The entire process was a collaborative effort with student and staff input during design and a team-oriented relationship with Skanska USA, the general contractor, during construction.”
The project was awarded several points in the LEED® assessment for optimizing energy performance due to half of the facility operating on high efficiency variable refrigerant volume (VRV) heat pumps. These allow portions of the building to have different climate control settings simultaneously. The facility’s tilt-up concrete walls also scored additional LEED® points. The seven to 11 inch thick walls provide a thermal mass that decreases the loss of heating and cooling.
“The district is very pleased that we could work within the budgetary constraints while achieving a building the community can truly be proud of,” said Jerry Milstead, Redmond School District Capital Projects Manager. “We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome of the project.”
