5 K-12 Projects that Earn an A+
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Top of the Class: 7 Resources for Elevating K-12 Educational Facilities with Wood
One of the major influences on how elementary, middle, and high school students learn is one that is often thought of as a backdrop as opposed to a star player: the school building itself. So much so that with its ED Infrastructure and Sustainability program, one of the U.S. Department of Education’s stated goals is to “increase the national awareness of the impacts school infrastructure and sustainability can have on student health, learning outcomes, teacher retention, and district finances.”
Creating healthy, sustainable, 21st century schools starts with using the right materials, and as school districts set ambitious sustainability goals, building with wood presents new opportunities. Both light-frame and mass timber construction offer decreased carbon footprints because wood stores carbon over the life of the building. In addition to carbon reductions, designing and building modern schools with wood prioritizes occupant well-being and streamlines costs to create warm, welcoming spaces centered on learning.
Using wood as a primary building material in schools also offers benefits during design and construction that carry on through the building’s end-users: the students. Faster construction timelines—using mass timber earns high marks by delivering an approximate 25% increase in the speed of construction and delivery—and the potential to source materials locally can translate to high-performance, cost-effective buildings that are resilient and appealing learning environments that can have positive impacts on learning outcomes.
The projects and resources below explore wood’s potential to create centers of education excellence that will help shape the next generation.
1. Common Ground High School
Common Ground High School students in New Haven, Connecticut, do more than study urban farming and sustainability. They live it each day in a building that’s now a national model of what is possible in green school construction. Common Ground’s use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a “stressed skin” assembly became a pedagogical lesson for students, who now understand the importance of locally sourced building materials.
2. Evergreen Charter School
The Evergreen Charter School is one of the first CLT schools built on the U.S. East Coast and an SLB and USDA Forest Service 2022 Mass Timber Competition winner. The new building was developed with the mission of creating a sustainable school with a robust education program that doubles as an asset for the entire community. The school’s green ethos is expressed in this full mass timber structure with wood columns, trusses, and CLT roofing elements, which translate to a building with low embodied carbon.
3. Blue Horizons School
Arizona’s Blue Horizons Elementary School is part of an innovative five-building campus designed to support and elevate the student experience. Using wood created bright, welcoming learning and gathering spaces. Key light-frame wood features include open-web trusses in major areas like the cafeteria and gymnasium and wood I-joists that filter sunlight. A Community Oasis at the center of the campus brings academic communities together to create a space for student life to happen.
4. Martha C. Cutts Gymnasium
The Martha C. Cutts Gymnasium was the first CLT building in the Washington, D.C., region, and it all started with a simple question. A school parent asked, “Why not wood?” and the design team seized the opportunity to make the project unique and beautiful. CLT enabled the project team to balance client expectations with costs and an aggressive timeline. The resulting facility signaled an exciting new construction advance that supports student well-being and school distinction within ever-tightening budgets.
5. St. David Catholic School
The St. David Catholic Elementary School draws inspiration from its location within the Canadian Shield’s streams, rocks, and dense forests. It was designed to respect the natural environment, emphasizing exposed wood both inside and outside the classroom. Linking the surrounding woodlands to the school by building with wood showed students a real-life example of the importance of place. The project team carefully minimized construction impacts on the surrounding environment and capitalized on connections to nature.
6. Mass Timber Schools—Building for Wellness
As expertise and experience with mass timber spreads across the country, designers are looking at how mass timber and biophilic design could help optimize learning environments. The connection between biophilic spaces and student health and cognitive benefits, combined with advancements in mass timber technology, creates a winning combo that can contribute to building better schools faster.
7. Designing Modern Wood Schools CEU
As demand for educational facilities—new buildings and renovations—continues to grow, there is a strong case for using wood in school construction. Designing modern wood schools accommodates students and staff with cost-effective structures while creating high-performance, resilient, and appealing buildings. Expand your knowledge with this CEU.
If you’d like to explore using wood in your next K-12 or higher education project, reach out to the Think Wood team. We can connect you with the industry’s leading experts to provide free lunch and learns or other continuing education resources covering wood design and construction.