Rating System

LEED BD+C: Schools

Rating System Version

v2 - Schools 2007

Inquiry

Per the Guidelines for CIR Customers document, we first contacted LEED Customer Service to present our difficulty with meeting the requirements of EQp3 for the design of an open plan high school in a rural town in Kansas. They were unable to help us and directed us to submit this CIR. Teachers in the current school use a Project Based Learning (PBL) approach to instruction. The new school building has been designed to facilitate the multidisciplinary projects and high degree of student interaction that makes PBL successful. This is, however, a very different school design than the developers of LEED for Schools 2007 had in mind when they created this rating system. As minimum acoustical performance is a prerequisite it is imperative that we gain direction from USGBC; however, we are attempting to avoid compromising the educational program of the school or adding extraneous items (like operable or glass partitions) in order to meet the LEED requirements. Our project is currently at 50% Construction Documents with a plan to complete CDs in December. We have hired an experienced acoustical consultant to assist us. After review of the prerequisite\'s requirements and the Performance/Intent Equivalent Alternative Compliance Path (PIEACP) dated April 23, 2008, we decided to follow: Reverberation Time (RT): Alternative Compliance Path 2 Sound Transmission Class (STC): Alternate Compliance Path Background Noise: Alternative Compliance Path However, while we believe we can meet the requirements for RT and Background Noise, we realized that we cannot meet STC - specifically between a few adjacent core learning spaces. We have recently reviewed the LEED for Schools v2009 version and noted the changes to this prerequisite, namely the exclusion of the minimum STC requirement. The LEED 2009 Schools 1st PC Comments & Responses.xls states in Cell E93 that: "The STC requirements were removed from the prerequisite for several reasons. By mandating STC requirements be met, the cost of a project grew significantly. Additionally, an STC requirement would prohibit open-plan classrooms from achieving LEED for School certification. While the Acoustics working group believes that open plan style classrooms are not as effective, it is not the intent of the USGBC to dictate design." In the past USGBC has developed credit substitution matrices for new ratings systems, which allow users of previous versions to utilize the new compliance paths - although the release of these often lag the release of the rating system by several months. While we recognize that LEED for Schools 2009 has not been balloted and that this change is more substantive than in the past due to credit weightings, we are asking that you grant us direction to use the LEED for Schools v2009 version of the EQp3. Alternatively we request to be exempt from the STC requirement of LEED for Schools v2007, either throughout the school, or just between the few spaces that cannot meet it. Either of these paths will ensure that we may continue on our quest for LEED certification for this project under LEED for Schools v2007. As indicated above, we are well down the road in our design and waiting to change to the entire LEED for Schools v2009 is not an option.