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District Dedicates New Hamilton Elementary School

MOLINE, Ill. — A ribbon cutting marking the official opening of the new Hamilton Elementary School in Moline coincided with the school’s first day of classes on Aug. 18. As the Moline-Coal Valley School District’s first new school in the city in five decades, Hamilton nearly quadruples the size of its 100-year-old predecessor and will house up to 600 K-5 students, according to a statement by the district.

The new 78,000-square-foot school was designed by Chicago-based Legat Architects and built by Russell Construction of Davenport, Iowa. Feedback from a series of collaborative community planning sessions helped develop the design,

“The new Hamilton is a testament to this community’s commitment to education and to the future of our children,” said Superintendent Lanty McGuire in a statement. “Its spaces and technologies give our teachers more opportunities to make a difference, while its flexibility allows us to adapt to the inevitable changes in the coming years.”

One of the school’s defining features is the Learning Stair, a wide staircase that ascends to a brilliant green-colored wall in a space flooded with natural light. The space is the first of its kind in the area and caters to a variety of learning experiences. It is also located adjacent to the two-story media center, providing extra space for students to read, study or listen to presentations. The Learning Stair is also equipped with a projector and screen for multimedia presentations.

Hamilton Elementary further distinguishes itself by promoting teacher versatility, student interaction and movement, and creativity, according to a statement by the district. The school features both a non-traditional floor plan and unique building materials as well as bold hues and flexible learning spaces that can be easily reconfigured.

Glass walls were used throughout the facility, particularly in common spaces, and each classroom features a wealth of new technology. Interactive Smart Boards are available in every classroom and an integrated audio-visual system connects different technologies. Flexible furnishings can accommodate groups large and small, and sliding doors between classrooms offer teachers a variety of ways to engage the spaces. A collaborative space known as the Imaginarium and a STEM-ready (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Discovery Lab were also included in the design.

“I was very impressed by parents’ and teachers’ dedication to the planning and design of this facility,” said Legat’s Jeff Sandberg, project manager and regional manager of the firm’s Quad Cities studio, in a statement. “The result is an open, inviting facility with discovery and collaboration at its heart.”

Sustainability was also a priority for the district, and the new Hamilton Elementary School will receive utility company rebates due to its energy-efficient HVAC system and LED lighting, according to a statement by the district. It is also designed to achieve a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star rating of 85 (based on a 1 to 100 percentile rating).

“It’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict what the world is going to look like ten years from now . . . what the job market will be like,” said Todd Williams, Hamilton principal, in a statement. “What we can count on, however, is that the students graduating from Hamilton Elementary School will be well on their way to becoming productive members of that world.”

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Illinois’ College of Lake County Continues to Expand

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. — The College of Lake County (CLC) began construction last month on a new $28.3 million Science & Engineering Building. The project is the first in a series of major upgrades that will take place throughout the CLC’s various campuses, totaling $163 million.

Designed by architect of record Legat Architects and design architect Brubaker Design, both of Chicago, the new Science & Engineering Building will highlight the college’s science and engineering programs and serve as an attractive new gathering spot for the campus community. In addition to creating nearly 42,000 square feet of new teaching and learning space, the project will also include a roughly 25,000-square-foot renovation of the college’s existing C Wing.

The project will provide all new laboratory spaces for biology, microbiology, anatomy, physiology and chemistry students. The soon-to-be constructed areas will include four laser and photonics laboratories — expanding the college’s growing engineering department — and five chemistry laboratories, including one specifically devoted to organic chemistry. Meanwhile, the renovated space will offer two new anatomy and physiology labs, two cadaver labs, two microbiology labs, four upgraded biology labs and two general-purpose classrooms.

The new building in particular has been designed to LEED platinum standards, and will include a variety of green features such as a rooftop photovoltaic array, a geothermal heating and cooling system, a rainwater harvesting system, LED lighting and a living wall. The building’s sustainability features are anticipated to result in a more than 50 percent reduction in energy consumption over a comparable conventionally designed building.

“We are very proud of the sustainability features,” said CLC Board Chair Amanda Howland in a statement. “They demonstrate that sustainability is good not just for the planet but also for taxpayers’ pocketbooks.”

Construction of the Science & Engineering Building addition is expected to wrap up in summer 2016, after which crews will begin on the renovation phases. The Illinois Capital Development Board (CDB) and the college funded the three-story building and upgrades jointly. Affiliated Engineering, Inc. (AEI) also assisted in the development of efficient mechanical and electrical systems that will support the college’s commitment to energy conservation and sustainable principles, according to a statement by the college.

In addition to this new facility, CLC’s Master Plan also includes a variety of other upgrades and improvements, including the addition of a $4.8 million geothermal system, which will provide heating and cooling to the entire campus. A nearly $25 million renovation to the campus’ Main Lobby, located between two existing wings, will include extensive remodeling and the addition of a new café. Further renovations to the A and B wings will modernize existing HVAC and sprinkler systems, create a centralized student services center and update classrooms.

Improvements are also taking place at CLC’s Waukegan campus. That campus will receive a new 53,000-square-foot building, and more than 19,700 square feet of existing space will undergo renovations to expand educational offerings and enhance services and programs. Meanwhile, the CLC Southlake Campus in Vernon Hills will benefit from a $1.67 million chemistry lab expansion.

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Progress Report: Paul Pessetti, Legat Architects

Name: Paul Pessetti

Position: Senior Designer/Staff Architect

Years in the Education Design Field: 22 years

Education: Masters of Architecture, University of Illinois; Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University of Illinois

Hubble Middle School Awards: Award of Merit from the Illinois Association of School Boards; Middle School Citation from American School & University Magazine; and Project of the Year for Best in K-12 Education from Midwest Construction

Green construction may be a popular concept these days, but the concept of building sustainable, energy efficient school structures has been around a long time.

Paul Pessetti, senior designer and staff architect at Legat Architects, has been at the forefront of green building for most of his successful career. More recently, he and his company garnered accolades for the design of Hubble Middle School in Warrenville, Ill., which earned a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“The firm itself has always done as much sustainable design as we can, even before the green certification came up, just in terms of making sure of the higher efficiency building envelopes and mechanical systems and the like,” says Pessetti. “So when Hubble came up and we had the opportunity with the green building, we really focused on that and dug in and kind of challenged the board a little bit.”

Pessetti began his career in the late 1980s, before the concept of green design became commonplace. He began working at Legat after graduating from college and quickly focused in on educational facilities, a primary project type for Chicago-based Legat.

“I kind of stumbled upon this company and it’s just kind of grown from there,” he explains. “They weren’t really teaching it in school. It wasn’t mainstream.”

Mainstream Green

It wasn’t until the formation of USGBC in 1993 that he noticed the push for sustainable design taking hold. “USGBC really kind of started forming and it was a couple of years before it really started taking off,” Pessetti says. “There were certain things some people were doing, but not widely.”

USGBC’s structure of prescribing points for particular design elements pushes designers to look at the entire building, rather than just one feature, he says. Components such as mechanical systems, insulation, windows, and materials all play a part. “It’s everything together. It’s a whole building solution. You can’t just focus on one aspect.”

Pessetti sees an improving future for green design, particularly in sustainable materials. For example, building materials with recycled content came with a premium price when green-building practices first came to the market. But now, manufacturers now find ways to incorporate recycled materials into their products and the costs are more comparable. “It’s just becoming more mainstream,” he says.

The next decade will bring new challenges as the economy takes it toll.

“Obviously, new buildings these days are fewer and farther between,” says Pessetti. He expects to see remodeling and retrofitting projects garner more attention, and LEED for Existing Buildings to play a bigger part.

LEED Gold for Hubble Middle School

The Hubble Middle School project is one of the first three Illinois facilities to obtain a gold LEED for Schools certification from the USGBC.

“They initially talked about doing a LEED Silver building and we actually ended up getting gold, which turned out really well,” says Pessetti.

The rating was a push, however, as the project needed 44 points to qualify for the gold rating and Pessetti thinks it received exactly that amount.

The new school opened in August 2009 and serves 1,080 students. It replaces a circa 1900’s facility that was in disrepair and also inconveniently located for the population it served. The concept probably materialized ten years ago, says Pessetti, when the Wheaton Warrenville Community Unit School District 200 began discussing ways to resolve issues at the school. The project moved more to the forefront around 2006 to 2007, about the same time Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley cast legislation proposing all new school projects and public projects obtain a minimum LEED silver rating.

“I think the district kind of saw that as an opportunity as well to get involved with the green building,” says Pessetti.

A $58 million referendum financed the new school and expenses ended up close to that when all was said and done. Costs included the purchase of a more conveniently located, 22-acre site.

“It was a fairly challenging site, in terms of the location. It was kind of split into two parcels,” Pessetti explains. Playfields occupy one part of the site, and the other part has a steep drop off towards the back of the site. “But we took the opportunity and were able to do a three-story classroom mass and then a one-story main part that joined it at mid-level.”

Oil giant BP granted an in-perpetuity easement for an adjacent four- to five-acre parcel used for storm water detention. “By doing that, we were able to maximize the use of our site,” says Pessetti. “It’s a naturalized wetland, so it’s a planted, designed wetland for the storm water storage.”

Each floor of the 190,000 square foot school provides 10 general classrooms, six special education classrooms, two science labs and a faculty team room. Legat developed what it calls “the extended classroom”, with widened corridor areas in each pod enabling each grade level to be broken don into two groups. A Wi-Fi hotspot area outside each classroom cluster is used for breakout group sessions.

The one-story community building features a 340-seat cafeteria/commons room; a 500-seat auditorium; faculty offices; gymnasiums; a fitness center; a health classroom; and separate classrooms for band, music, orchestra and drama programs.

A green roof next to the library is used by students as a teaching tool, as well as a gathering spot. “Budget constraint-wise, we wanted to do more green roof, but we ended up only doing a smaller area for an education tool,” says Pessetti.

“The school is also doing something interesting with one of the innovative design credits: the school as a teaching tool,” Pessetti says. The credit requires a certain amount of contact hours of environmental design and talk about that in terms of the education. So science classes and different courses focus on different topics on green, such as measuring your carbon footprint or what have you. And they have actually taken it another step further; once a quarter they do a multi-grade level project where the kids pick a feature of the building or a topic related to environmental sustainability and they do a group project on it. The report is then presented to the school.”

Reaching the gold certification level required focus on details.

“We took a lot of the low-hanging fruit in terms of what things you could do,” says Pessetti.

Designers used permeable pavers in on of the two parking lot areas and landscaping that requires no irrigation. Also, bike racks and dedicated parking spaces for low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles are provided.

Construction utilized low-emitting materials with low or no VOCs, and regional materials comprised about 40 percent of the construction material. Recycled content was in the high 30 percent range. About 84 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills. Water efficiency was addressed with automatic and low-flow fixtures, and dual-flush fixtures in all the urinals and water closets.

Budget constraints prohibited the used of solar power, but Legat looked for other ways to reduce energy use. “We actually have a dimming system – we call it light harvesting – in the classroom areas, where we have sensors on the lights that dim them as natural light comes in to maintain the prescribed level,” says Pessetti.

The entire building is designed to be about 24 percent more efficient that the baseline building and is thus far tracking close to that, he says.

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