Discovery Elementary School
Recognizing that students are the creators of our collective future, Discovery Elementary is a trailblazing project for high-performance school design and invests in the education necessary for long-term stewardship of our world.
Project Details
- Client: Arlington Public Schools
- Location: Arlington, VA
- Scope: New Construction
- Completion: 2015
- Size: 98,000 SF
- Performance: LEED Gold; Net-Zero Energy | EUI -3 kBTU/sf/year (measured) | 107% reduction (regional CBECs 2003 K12 School baseline)
Discovery Elementary School is Arlington Public Schools’ first elementary school designed in the 21st century. Designed to address rapidly growing student enrollment in Arlington, the school has set new standards for high-performance buildings and engaging school environments. The school is built into an existing hill to minimize the perception of its size, and it features exterior materials that complement the adjacent neighborhood context.
The school’s design takes advantage of the topography of the site to create distinct academic zones and separate exterior play spaces for early childhood, primary, and elementary grade levels. Discovery’s public spaces are defined by a large roof canopy that runs the length of the school and serves as the school’s “front porch.” At the main entry, the roof extends out as a canopy with an oculus, which allows the entry plaza to serve as a large solar calendar that indicates both time of day and time of year.
The school’s wayfinding goes beyond basic navigation to support a larger vision of spatial organization that reflects each grade’s expanding curriculum and identity. As students progress through the school, their “world expands” from the scale of the backyard to the galaxy.
Discovery Elementary inspires students and teachers to use the building creatively to facilitate everyday learning and lifelong exploration through easy access to the outdoors and flexible furnishings. Adaptable classrooms support teacher collaboration and cross-pollination. Throughout the school, markerboards, interactive displays, and break-out spaces encourage student expression and ownership.
Discovery isn’t just a school building. Every aspect of the environment is built for and used for learning. We aspire to its example, and strive to implement innovative, research-based, future-proof practices that mirror the potential of this space.
Innovative projects like Discovery Elementary School are critical to transforming our buildings, spaces, and places so that they can continue to sustain future generations. Giving students the opportunity to see and experience their school building as a living laboratory encourages greater understanding and stewardship for their planet and community. By setting high goals for energy performance and involving students in the effort, Discovery demonstrates a new threshold of academic and industry leadership.
Collaborators
MEP Engineering: CMTA
Structural Engineering: Fox & Associates
Civil Engineering: Bowman Consulting Group
Landscape Architect: Oculus
Contractor: Sigal Construction
Project Photography: Alan Karchmer and Lincoln Barbour
Additional Drawings
Building Section
Sustainability
Net-Zero Energy Design Strategies
The school was designed to be a zero-energy building, meaning that the amount of energy produced annually by on-site renewable energy sources is equal to the amount of energy used annually. The school has been a trailblazer for zero-energy schools, both in demonstrating performance and engaging students in the “building as a teaching tool”:
- Discovery Elementary School is the first school and third project ever to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Zero Energy certification.
- Discovery is the first recipient of the USGBC National Capital Region’s (NCR) Net Zero Award and is the only building in the NCR to date to demonstrate a net-positive energy balance.
- Discovery is one of the largest zero-energy buildings of any kind anywhere in the world and the first to receive Zero Energy certification by the collaborative partnership of the International Living Future Institute and New Buildings Institute.
Considerations for site footprint, solar orientation, building construction, and energy use were given top priority in the iterative design process. With a capacity of 650 students in grades Pre-K through 5, the 97,588 GSF building is designed for an Energy Use Index (EUI) of 23 kBTU/sf/year – one third of the energy use of a typical County elementary school. This ultra-low EUI makes on-site photovoltaic energy generation possible within a traditional school budget.
An equally-sized APS school accrues approximately $110,000 in annual energy costs. Discovery helps redirect funds that would otherwise be dedicated to energy costs back to the APS operating budget. As an all-electric building that buys and sells electricity back to the grid, Discovery is effectively hedged against inflation. In fact, the higher energy costs rise, the more the savings increase.
Community Engagement
Student Engagement
