Huguenot High School in Richmond, Va., has received LEED Gold certification for its environmentally friendly design and construction. The 250,000-square-foot building has capacity for 1,400 students and replaced an existing campus that had been in operation for almost 50 years.
Moseley Architects, which designed the school, notes in a news release that Huguenot is the first high school built in Richmond in 48 years.
Richmond Public Schools and Moseley incorporated many strategies to conserve water and energy. The football field is a permeable synthetic turf that promotes infiltration. Other fields are equipped with irrigation systems that use moisture sensors and efficient valves and sprays. Huguenot expects to reduce its irrigation water use by 625,000 gallons per year.
Water-efficient plumbing fixtures in the building are designed to reduce water use by more than 40 percent compared with standard fixtures. That amounts to saving an additional 770,000 gallons of potable water per year.
The building also uses LED lighting, occupancy sensors, and high-performance glazing to reduce energy consumption. The glazing strategy maximizes daylight—90 percent of the regularly occupied spaces have direct views to the outside.
Construction materials included local and recycled products, and low chemical-emitting materials such as paints, adhesives, carpet, and composite wood were used inside the building to protect indoor air quality.
Huguenot's curriculum will focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The facility has modern technology, open learning spaces, two floors of classrooms, and a 2,400-square-foot vegetated roof for coursework.
