RALEIGH, N.C. — Although school started Aug. 14 at Exploris School — a Raleigh-based elementary and middle school spread over two campuses — the real excitement won’t begin until this time next year. Slated to open in August 2018, the school will debut its new $65 million, 10-story building project that will be the first energy-positive (producing more energy than it uses) high-rise building in the United States, according to the developers.

North Carolina’s capital city, Raleigh is lauded for its universities and technology and institutions such that, with neighboring cities Chapel Hill and Durham, the area is known as the Research Triangle. The Exploris School, a charter school founded in 1997, makes a fine complement to this tradition with its curricula based on experiential, project-based learning and a philosophy that privileges relationship-based education and sustainability. These core values were echoed by locally based SfL+a Architects, which designed the school’s new building.

SfL+a has designed other LEED Gold– and Platinum–certified educational facilities, including Luber Bridge, N.C.-based Sandy Grove Middle School, which was the nation’s first energy positive, LEED Platinum–designed public school.

The added space of the new Exploris School building, otherwise known as the City Gateway, will allow the institution to combine its elementary and middle schools into a single campus location. This will also permit enrollment to increase from about 420 to 650 students, reported the New Observer, a Raleigh-area newspaper.

The school acquired 5.5 acres in downtown Raleigh (near the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts) in May 2016 for $4.4 million. Of the 10 stories, the school will occupy the 53,000 square feet in the renovated building’s ground floor, whereas the floors above will be leased for commercial uses but available should the school need to expand in the future.

The school is wrapping up the permitting process, hoping to break ground this mid-November. About 50 percent of the building is leased to commercial interests, though the project’s organizers are pushing for 70 percent of capacity prior to its launch.

“The Exploris School is just a fantastic school,” said SfL+a Principal Barry Buckman. “Their whole philosophy as a school is very much geared around community involvement and awareness of what’s going on and being connected to the world around them. They’re a very outward-reaching school, which really fits in an urban context — their science classroom is the Natural Science Museum; their art classroom is the North Carolina Museum of Art. They’re out there experiencing things in a way a traditional public school isn’t able to do based on their settings.”

Besides taking advantage of the urban environment, the building will also make use of the surrounding environment. There will be a solar array as well as myriad energy-saving technologies including geothermal heating and cooling systems that will use subterranean pipes to heat water in the winter and keep it cool during the summer months.

The building will also boast a variety of data-collecting tools that will track information produced by the building’s systems. A central computer will analyze data to recognize energy and water consumption. Buckman said they also plan to capture data on the inhabitants of the building.

“We will be collecting metrics on student and faculty performance as well as office users,” said Buckman. “We’ll all be guinea pigs in this experiment when we move in there and try to figure out how a building of this nature can actually impact how we perform.”

Buckman observed that the new Exploris School project will function as a microcosm of its surrounding community.

“We’re trying to figure out how to use advance technologies to breakdown the traditional barriers that will be there so that people will be able to move about the campus more freely but still be connected and still be able to uses all the pieces and parts that are there at their disposal,” he said.

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One major initiative is the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory project at the University of Delaware. The project is a 200,000-square-foot research and teaching facility that has been under construction since 2010 and will be completed in summer 2013.

“Science and engineering are two of the historic strengths of the University of Delaware and this was building on our strengths and encouraging interdisciplinary efforts within the science and engineering field,” said David Singleton, vice president of facility and auxiliary services at the University of Delaware.

The building will include teaching labs, research labs, a large clean-room facility, faculty office space and meeting space.

“Since the last new laboratory was built 20 years ago there’s been considerable growth in science and engineering. A particular emphasis here has been on encouraging collaborative efforts on the different disciplines within science and engineering,” said Singleton.

The cost of the project has not yet been disclosed to the public, but all funding is expected to come from donors and internal sources. The architect on the project is Baltimore-based Ayers Saint Gross and the construction manager is Whiting-Turner Contracting.

Construction throughout the school year differs slightly from summer construction. In addition to work that is noisier, underground utility work that could interrupt services to other buildings takes place when the campus is empty.

The exterior is nearly complete, so the primary focus is building the interiors. Currently, the laboratory fume hoods and benches are being placed in the building.

“When we started this in 2010, many of the students who were here at that point knew they wouldn’t be here long enough to have a class there. Now that we’re getting within a year of completion most of our students who are taking courses in science and engineering have a very good chance that they will have a class there. I think the anticipation has really grown,” said Singleton.

Projects in the West

Another large project comes from the University of Oregon, where the Global Scholars Hall (formerly East Campus Residence Hall) is slated for completion before the fall 2012 semester.

The residence hall will be home to 450 students who are immersed in global study and culture; such as students enrolled in the Robert D. Clarke Honors College, College Scholars, or the global scholars language programs in French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese or Mandarin.

Each of the residential communities will have its own purpose and will contribute to activities such as Campus United Nations, World Café, and international virtual summits.

The building will incorporate five classrooms, a resident scholar, a learning commons and librarian, a multipurpose performance room with an elevated stage, study rooms, the Fresh Marketcafé, and a presentation practice room.

Like the University of Oregon, the University of Hawaii at Hilo will be opening new doors in time for the fall semester. The $4 million state-of-the-art College Campus Store addition needs only a little more paint and furniture to be ready in time for the return of students.

The one-story addition to the Campus Center holds 8,500 square feet of apparel, computer, textbook and café areas, and is made to replace the existing bookstore. The center will be the primary outlet for selling school supplies, textbooks, school merchandise, snacks, computers and computer accessories.

“I think the store’s close proximity to the new Student Services Building, combined with the goods and services it offers will provide students with an added element of convenience,” said Jason Tanaka, College Campus Store manager in a statement. “That will enable them to get more of the things they need in the same, general area.”

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