APS Atrisco ES Classroom Addition

Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is the largest public school district in the State of New Mexico, providing educational services to over 89,500 children across Albuquerque. The District’s commitment to promote energy and water efficiency and to provide cost-effective, state-of-the-art facilities is evident in the Atrisco Elementary School project.

The original campus buildings, which date back to the late 1890’s, were demolished in 1945 and 1984 to make way for the existing campus, which dates back as far as 1960. The campus is comprised of 14 individual permanent buildings and 2 portable classroom buildings. The new classroom building adds 34,667 square feet of space to the campus with 18 classrooms and a cafeteria with a kitchen.

Project design strategies focused primarily on consolidating the overall campus circulation and providing better controlled access to campus facilities. Secondary goals focused on the classroom functions including operable partitions for team teaching, student cubbies, increased daylighting and combining tackable wall surfaces with acoustic capabilities. The campus site also underwent a transformation to improve dedicated traffic access for parents and buses. The campus now incorporates interior courtyards to promote safety and flexibility over time.

The classroom building houses over 300 photovoltaic panels mounted to the roofing system. The PV panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. The array increases energy savings for the building by 49 percent earning an exemplary performance point for the project. Construction efforts alone diverted more than 1,077 tons of construction debris from landfills which amounts to over 90 percent of the total generated construction waste for this project. The building itself is comprised of 30 percent pre- and post-consumer recycled material to aid in the reduction of raw material consumption. Of those materials, 27 percent were extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of the project site, supporting the local economy as well as reducing transportation impacts.

Combining these efforts with water efficiency, environmental site concerns and occupant comfort, allowed the project to earn 68 points out of a possible 110 earning LEED Gold certification.