Faced with a steadily growing student body, the Pulaski County Board of Education sought to replace an aging elementary school with a new, state-of-the-art elementary that could accommodate a larger number of students.
The design for the new school is broken into small groups of classrooms that are organized by grade level and each clustered around a common multipurpose space. Specialty classrooms, like a large science lab, and classrooms for art and music, are centrally located in the building for maximum accessibility by all grade levels.
The building’s public areas including the cafeteria, gymnasium and media center are separated from the classroom spaces to enable them to remain open to the public while the rest of the building is securely locked.
A wide range of high performance features were included in the design. Tubular skylights bring natural light into the building’s interior spaces reducing the need for artificial lighting. Terrazzo and other low maintenance flooring was utilized to make the entire facility wax-free. Paints and caulks with the lowest levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were specified to preserve indoor air quality. A highly reflective cool roof minimizes solar heat gain and reduces the burden on the highly efficient geothermal HVAC system.
Outside the building, the geothermal well field was used to create walking trails and athletics fields. The building, which sits atop a picturesque hill among rolling farmland, offers gorgeous views outside every window. A fully designed landscape incorporates native and naturalized plantings all around the building, further accentuating the natural beauty afforded by the site.
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