By Bill Sullivan

Addison residents got an update on plans for the Town’s new elementary school at a Jan. 21 meeting at the Addison Athletic Club. Jeff Miller of WRA Architects, designer of the facility, gave an overview of the George Herbert Walker Bush Elementary School, with a special emphasis on its cutting-edge sustainability features.

The school, being built in cooperation with the Dallas Independent School District, will be home to students from pre-K to Grade 5. It is scheduled to open in time for the 2011-12 school year.

Residents took in a slide show touting the new school's progressive features. (Photo: AddisonGreen.Info)

“There are lots of definitions of sustainability,” Miller told the group. “The one that’s used the most: ‘Meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.’

“We’re just trying to build responsible buildings. The District is trying to build responsible buildings.”

Located next to Greenhill School on Spring Valley at Brookhaven Club Drive, the school will accommodate 800 students. The $22.5 million building will be incorporated into the Town’s hike/bike trail system, allowing students in the Les Lacs and Midway Meadows neighborhoods to walk or ride bicycles to campus.

“We’re encouraging bicycle transportation,” Miller said. “Being right there near the bike trail, we’re able to put a couple more bike racks on the site.

“It’s really going to be pedestrian and bike-friendly. Having that option as we move through the future is really going to be valuable.”

The two-story design is also environmentally-friendly in reducing the overall footprint and allowing for more landscaping.

Dr. Edwin Flores, District 1 representative to the DISD Board of Trustees, also addressed the gathering. (Photo: AddisonGreen.Info)

While there are numerous ways to measure sustainability, the District has chosen to follow the guidelines set by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, which offers standards that are more school-specific.

“The first time we saw the site, we knew were going to get a lot of sustainability points, because it’s eight acres of asphalt parking lot,” Miller said, drawing chuckles from the crowd. “We’re giving over half of that back to landscaping. That’s a lot of water that doesn’t run off the site, that gets absorbed in the site, and much better for the environment.”

Other “green” features of the school, with the architect’s comments:

Heat management: “Our roof is highly reflective. We’ll reflect as much heat as we possibly can with the roof. That’s going to help with the energy loads. As much landscaping as we have on the site really contributes to that as well.”

Water management: “We’ve got multiple water meters for large systems. The irrigation system will have its meters. Other things in the building will have their own meters. That falls into the category of ‘What gets measured gets managed.’”

Materials: “We try to use very durable and low-maintenance materials. We stepped that up a little bit on this one.”

Energy efficiency: “This is a big wild card. We’re estimating that this will be 19 to 25 percent less energy than an elementary school that was designed 10 years ago.

Geothermal elements: “Four hundred some-odd wells, 300 feet deep, will be drilled in the area that we showed as a field. That means no chillers. The water will basically go into the ground and come back up. It’ll go down at 70 degrees and come back up at 55 degrees. So all the energy we’d spend on chillers, we won’t be spending on this site. We’re still pumping the water, but that will save energy.”

“There’s a pump for every room, which really translates into a thermostat for every room. Every teacher has complete control of the environment, whether it’s hot or cold.”

Lighting: “We have a lot of natural light in this building. We have double-pane windows to save a lot of energy there. If you get the solar-orientation, all these other things pay more dividends percentage-wise.

“All the ceilings in the classrooms are 10-feet high. We have the indirect fluorescents that light the ceiling. It’s really good for the students, but combined with the natural lights, it’s a very efficient use of those lights.”

Windows: “Every class room has an operating window so we can get natural ventilation that’s within the complete control of the teacher. We’ve also designed a natural ventilation system into the HVAC to get the fresh air into the building.”

Slade Strickland, Addison Parks and Recreation Director, addressed the role of the expanded trail system in the project. A 10-foot wide concrete trail will connect with the existing path, effectively making the new campus part of the trail experience. Two new playgrounds and an outdoor learning garden should allow the Town to pick up about six acres of open park space.

“We have a really prime opportunity to design the trail and make the school outdoor campus an integral part of the trail system itself,” Strickland said.

Plans call for the additions to be completed by July, 2011, several months before the first students report to school.