September = School! Designing new schools to LEED® principles and standards

Submitted by Andreas Haase, P.Eng., LEED ® AP, Structural Engineer (Victoria, BC)

September means many different things to different people, but it’s usually related to the start of school.

When I hear ‘September’, I often remember my teachers, who were so important in developing my skills, which set the foundation for me becoming a structural engineer. And I remember the school buildings where I spent countless hours.

Ah yes, the schools. My elementary and middle school years were spent in the proverbial boring rectangular stucco and blue-and-white portable boxes. One school had a smelly dungeon, and who knows what lurked down there. The ubiquitous portables sat at the edge of the field, little clusters isolated from everything else, where you had to run outside in the rain to get from one classroom to the next. These schools were definitely not the most conducive environments to learning.

Perhaps this is why I’m so excited to have been involved in the design of several new middle and elementary schools while working here at the Stantec Victoria Office. All these schools are wonderful and complex buildings, designed to LEED® principles and standards.

The Stantec design team for Kelset Elementary School was highly integrated, providing structural, mechanical, and civil services. The curved glulam beams, and glulam supported curved canopies give the feeling that you’re wandering in a forest. The wood framed building itself is curved to fit within the natural contours of the ridge it sits on to provide ocean views from every classroom. This unique architectural layout provided many structural challenges, especially in the design of the seismic resisting system. The mechanical team used thermal modeling techniques to design the natural ventilation and passive cooling systems. They also designed perimeter radiant and radiant in-floor heating systems to provide an exceptionally comfortable environment. The civil works included the design and construction administration for roadway improvements, water service, sanitary sewer service, and stormwater management infrastructure. The Stantec team is proud to have worked on this ‘Consulting Engineers of British Columbia’ nominated project!

Stantec provided the structural and civil services for Royal Oak Middle School. The wide open corridor spaces, natural lighting and ventilation, and double sized gymnasium area give a feeling of freedom. The huge windows and glulam construction fit in perfectly with the west coast architecture. Along with the natural ventilation and abundance of light, it’s almost as close as you can get to the outside without actually being outside.

North Saanich Middle School is currently under construction, and combines elements from the two other schools. It will be a LEED® Gold rated building.

A special feature at all of these schools is that portions of them are designed to be used as community centres. This allows the public to have access to the art and music rooms. Kelset Elementary School also offers a First Nations Cultural Centre.

Each of these schools is unique and provided its own design challenges. These ranged from designing a free standing plenum to accommodate natural ventilation systems, to designing external bracing which allows for a maximum degree of flexibility to change room configurations in the future, to dealing with a lack of walls because of all the windows. All these buildings have exacting standards which required an extremely high degree of coordination with the architects and other consultants. These schools are anything but boring!

I am proud to have been part of the team that contributed to the design of these modern, comfortable, and healthy schools, which current and future generations of students will be able to enjoy… as much as they can anyways. I mean, it is school after all!