Designing better learning environments...

Explore Reedy Fork Elementary School !

The Reedy Fork Elementary School was the second school to be constructed in Guilford County as a 3-dimensional (3-D) textbook so the students, teachers and the community learn about sustainable design strategies and how they reduce the impact that human development has upon our environment.
Reedy Fork has 85,856 square feet and includes classrooms for 725 students plus dining, multi-purpose room, science, art, music, computer, media center and administration facilities. The school was designed in conjunction with a civic complex for Reedy Fork Ranch. By smart planning, we were able to reduce costs by sharing facilities within the overall complex. In addition, the school uses a rainwater harvesting system to reduce water consumption throughout the school. Rainwater is collected from the roof area of the school and stored in a 45,000-gallon underground storage tank. The rainwater is then pumped from the tank to the school, filtered, chlorinated, dyed light blue and used for flushing each toilet in the school. By using rainwater for toilet flushing, the school is able to save over 767,000 gallons of water that would otherwise be purchased from the City of Greensboro, representing 94% of the water used for toilet flushing each year.

Explore Northern Guilford Middle School !

The Northern Guilford Middle School was constructed as a 3-dimensional (3-D) textbook so the students, teachers and the community learn about sustainable design strategies and how they reduce the impact that human development has upon our environment. The building was expected to be fully occupied in January 2007.
The middle school has 149,000 square feet and includes classrooms for 950 students plus dining, gymnasium, auditorium, science, art, music, technology, media center and administration facilities. To minimize cost and maximize environmental benefit, the sitework for both the adjacent high school and middle school were designed by Innovative Design. This work includes the rainwater harvesting, the extensive bio-swales and three constructed wetlands, wastewater treatment, and subsurface irrigation systems.