Gloria Marshall Elementary School is designed by SHW Group, What initially began as a ?repeat? school design resulted in one of the greenest Marshall Elementary School in the state of Texas without adding any costs to the district?s capital budget. When the architect and Spring Independent School District first began exploring the goals for the new school, conversations quickly turned to daylighting, energy efficiency and water conservation. This led to an original sustainable, high-performance school designed as a teaching tool that will educate generations of students about resource conservation.
photography by © Luis Ayala
The school was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification and has already been accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive an ENERGY STAR rating due to its energy-efficient building design. In addition, the architect designed the school to meet criteria for Collaborative for High-Performance Schools (CHPS), the nation?s first green building rating program specially designed for K-12 schools. The building will also be the first school in Houston to use geothermal heating and cooling, which is expected to save at least 25 percent in energy consumption over the current code. The school is a two-story rectangular building oriented with long sides facing north and south. Each classroom has natural light and the south-facing classrooms are taking advantage of daylight harvesting. In addition, the building was designed to have l...