CARLSBAD — Since the groundbreaking in October 2009, Pacific Ridge School has been buzzing with construction activity as it builds toward a LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, for Schools Gold certification. Recently, Pacific Ridge School hit two major milestones in the development of its $20 million campus expansion: a wall raising and a field dedication.
On Dec. 28, Swinerton Builders and the Downey Group raised the walls of Pacific Ridge School’s new high school building, a 32,500-square-foot building for up to 360 students. School staff and a handful of trustees and parents witnessed the spectacle of the huge walls tilting into their permanent places. Designed to utilize passive ventilation and effective energy-efficient day lighting, the high school building’s overall energy performance is projected to be approximately 40 percent less than that of a similar building designed to California Energy Code.
A week following the wall raising milestone on Jan. 5, more than 400 students, faculty, staff, parents and community members gathered to celebrate the first kick-off on the school’s new synthetic turf athletic field.
Some of the design features that Pacific Ridge School’s new building will include onsite solar power, recycled construction materials, natural lighting for 90 percent of classroom space, passive ventilation for nearly 50 percent of classroom space, and a reduction of landscape irrigation by 50 percent.
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