The IDeAs team led the electrical system design of the Nueva School’s Hillside Learning Complex, a 2008 AIA COTE Top 10 Winner. It includes three buildings—a library and media center, a student center, and a classroom building with administrative offices, seven classrooms, and an R&D lab—which are organized around a central plaza. The design emphasizes simple solutions that maximize energy efficiency, user comfort, and connections to nature while reducing first cost and long-term maintenance needs.
Narrow floor plates, ceilings over 12 feet high, and generous glazing provide daylight that allow energy efficient lighting to be off during 90% of daylight hours and views to nature in 90% of building spaces. The project uses 69% less site energy than a typical school building of its size in the U.S., surpassed the 2030 Challenge by using 54% less site energy than a comparable local facility per the EPA Target Finder and 2030 Challenge criteria and exceeded California Title 24 by 32%. A 30 KW photovoltaic array located on the Classroom Building roof offsets 24% of the project’s site energy requirements.
