Benya’s extensive daylight modeling was critical to obtaining the LEED Platinum rating for the school. Using a combination of software programs, AGI32 and Lumen Micro 2000, Benya was able to closely determine the behavior of the building throughout the course of the year, and subsequently calculate and predict how the building would perform overall. Importantly, these figures allowed Benya to measure if the building would comply with the LEED daylighting credit. According to Benya, “Getting all of the classrooms to meet the daylighting credit was an essential part of how we got LEED Platinum.”
Equal care also was given to the design of the electrical lighting for the Middle School. As O’Connor explains, they took an atypical approach to the electrical lighting design, focusing on “watt hours, rather than watts per square foot” and reducing the need for electric lighting through the creative utilization of architectural surfaces and relights, such as the light shelves located in many of the corridors that channel light over the hallways and onto the ceilings of classrooms with less beneficial exposures.
Custom light fixtures were designed for the classrooms as well. Notable for their simplicity and efficiency, these luminaries offer only two modes: lecture mode for general classroom use with uplights, and AV mode with minimal downlights for presentations requiring restricted lighting conditions. As an energy efficiency safeguard, the fixtures are designed so that only one mode can run at a time. Furthermore, during lecture mode daylight sensors automatically regulate the system, brightening or dimming the fixtures as necessary. This system also reduces user error, with teachers only needing to select the desired mode.
Selected by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment as one of their Top Ten Green Project for 2007, the Sidwell Friends Middle School serves as an example not only to the student body and local community, but to all, of what is possible when a commitment to protecting the environment and preserving natural resources is made. As Benya keenly argues, there was nothing “exotic” about the solutions implemented at Sidwell Friends or extraordinary about the budget, and therefore, as he explains, it should serve as a “workable prototype for what every school building could easily be. The reason we don’t think in these terms is that we haven’t had to.” But the time of not considering these issues is quickly drawing to an end, and thankfully institutions like the Sidwell Friends Middle School are setting an example that makes it very difficult to ethically justify or accept traditional (and often comfortable) approaches to designing the built environment. As Benya states, “There is simply no excuse not to do it.”
DETAILS
PROJECT Sidwell Friends Middle School Addition, Washington D.C.
CLIENT Sidwell Friends School, Washington D.C.
ARCHITECT KieranTimberlake Associates, Philadelphia
LIGHTING DESIGNER Sean O’Connor Associates Lighting Consultants, Los Angeles
DAYLIGHTING CONSULTANT Benya Lighting Design, West Linn, Oregon
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER CVM Engineers, Wayne, Pennsylvania
MEP ENGINEER Bruce Brooks & Associates, Philadelphia
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Andropogon Associates, Philadelphia
WETLAND CONSULTANT Natural Systems International, Santa Fe, New Mexico
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN CONSULTANTS Green Shape, Washington, D.C.; Integrative Design Collaborative, Arlington, Massachusetts
CIVIL ENGINEER VIKA, McLean, Virginia
GEOTECHNICAL ECS Mid-Atlantic, Chantilly, Virginia
INFORMATION DISPLAY Lucid Design Group, Oakland, California
COMMISSIONING AGENT Engineering Economics, Arlington, Virginia
EXTERIOR WALL CONSULTANT Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Rockville, Maryland
PHOTOGRAPHERS Peter Aaron/Esto (page 28 and 30, left); Barry Halkin, (page 29 and page 30, right top and bottom)
PROJECT SIZE 39,000 square feet
MANUFACTURERS Architectural Area Lighting, Artemide, Bartco, B-K Lighting, Con-Tech, Energie, Erco, Finelite, Focal Point, Forum, Hevi Lite, Kurt Versen, Lightolier, Lithonia, Lutrex, Lutron, Mercury, Metalux, Rambusch, Selux, Smedmark, Zumtobel
