Integrated Sustainable Design

By Guest Blogger Steve Newsom

If you like happy endings, you’re going to enjoy the story of South Tahoe High School. Nestled in the High Sierra Mountains, among majestic peaks, world-class ski resorts, and giant sequoias, is a school that means business about preparing its students for the future. The strategy is to give these students career training, experience, and opportunities in high tech, curriculum-driven school facilities, in the spirit that they will have what they need to stay in the community and thrive.

At this year’s annual conference for CEFPI (the Council of Educational Facility Planners International), challenge and change were topics that came up, over and over again. With a theme of “Learning in a Flat World,” the event spurred keynotes, workshops, breakout sessions, and roundtable discussions, centered on the learning experience of today and tomorrow and what environments were conducive to this changing learning climate.

By Wendy Rogers, AIA, LEED AP

The relationship between curriculum and construction in K-12 schools is a thoughtful blend of both old and new ideas, intertwined with an assortment of technologies, hands on experiences and relevant core values.