Allies for Efficiency: Sustainable and Resilient School Design – Implementing the Beaverton School District Resilience Plan

In February 2013, the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission published The Oregon Resilience Plan, which outlines the risks and challenges facing Oregonians from the inevitable Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. The plan provides sobering predictions about the impacts of a magnitude 9+ earthquake and is a call to action for all Oregonians. Administrators from the Beaverton School District read this plan and understood their responsibility to provide safe, resilient schools for their community. The Beaverton School District, which is currently executing a $680 million bond program approved by voters in May 2014, sponsored a community-wide effort to translate the concepts of the Oregon Resilience Plan into forward-thinking design criteria, which exceed code requirements for new school buildings. The District’s seven new schools will achieve seismic Risk Category IV for structural components and contain features that will allow the schools to serve as temporary community shelters after a disaster.

This presentation will provide an overview of the District’s bond program and discuss motivations for the resilience work, including criteria selected and cost impacts. It will also use the newly completed middle school at Timberland as a design case study. Designed on a very tight timeline with an inflexible budget, Timberland middle school is an innovative, sustainable and resilient building that is 62 percent more efficient than a standard school building of its size, and fully capable of functioning as a community emergency shelter post-disaster.

Course Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the role schools can play in community emergency response and economic recovery after a major disaster
2. Learn how to engage community stakeholders to effectively incorporate resilience strategies into school designs
3. Understand how to design holistically, and incorporate efficient HVAC, lighting and envelope, resulting in a school building significantly more efficient than the standard building type baseline
4. Identify strategies for emergency power, how to right-size an emergency generator for a school emergency shelter
5. Learn innovative strategies for designing and financing resilient solar power systems

Presenters:

Richard L. Steinbrugge, Executive Administrator for Facilities, Beaverton School District
Jay Raskin, Architect, and Founder of Salus Resilience
Kent Yu, Principal, SEFT Consulting Group
Kurtis Zenner, Associate, Mahlum Architects
David Chesley, Principal, Interface Engineering

 Breakfast and coffee provided.

*Webinar option available *