individual work and a variety of different scenarios and places, still including direct instruction, is a better way for kids to learn. Students get excited about it. They can learn from each other, teach each other. Once you can teach someone else, that means you’ve mastered it. We design an environment where there are student collaborative areas outside the classrooms. The key to that is having glass or an opening so the teacher can monitor them. Some kids are working in the classroom, some are working in collaboration, and some are being tutored by either an adult or their peers. One of the most wonderful things in my career is that I go to my schools and see young people who love school, unlike my experience. One of the best things that my mentors did was invite me to join them in some of the groups, like the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education. We would go to one or two conferences a year. You’d see what everyone else is doing across the country, and sometimes you learn you don’t want to do that. And sometimes, you think “That’s really working. We could do that. And how can we make it even better?” We realized, “Yeah, we’re doing everything pretty good, but we need collaboration.” We added that, and then we thought, “But the furniture is just no good.” At Davis School District, which is a good steward of children’s education, we did an experiment. We took everybody’s temperature, asking, “How do you like what you’re using? How does it limit you?” Then they got test classroom furniture. After using the furniture for a month, they got the same questions. It drastically changed the way furniture was being purchased in that district. In 2006, I went to a presentation by Ed Mazria, FAIA. He challenged us by saying that the only people who are going to save us from climate change are architects. I went back to my partners and shared some of this, and I said, “How about we stop asking our clients about the things that are a no-brainer?” People would ask their clients, “Do you want us to specify low VOC paint?” I said, “Let’s stop doing that kind of thing. Just specify low VOC paint. They don’t care, but it makes a difference.” So, VCBO started to be more sustainable. How did you negotiate the budget to accommodate sustainability? There is a first cost versus a lifecycle cost that you have to look at. If you think about it, who builds a building that they own forever? School districts, universities and the government. If anybody should know how to save money by making the right decisions, it’s those people. In Utah, all the school districts have a good understanding of how to invest the right amount of money. They’re actually getting a very good value for what they spend. I designed the only two buildings in Utah that are Department of Energy-certified net zero. They’re both schools. Our client went to the same conferences we went to in the Pacific Northwest. We saw that the people there are very good at sustainability. Davis School District said, “I think we should do that. That’s our goal with our next prototype.” Around 2009, we were hired to do their new prototype. We changed the original elementary prototype that we first did in 1997. We did a lot of research. What we learned is, weirdly, it doesn’t have to cost more. It is the choices that you make. If you want brick and net zero, you probably can’t have it. If you don’t mind using CMU, that’s a way to save some money to put toward the rest of the building. To create a building like that, you have to improve the envelope. We started doing spray foam insulation. I asked my consultants, “How can we do this better?” We couldn’t build it the way we used to build it. We started the building with CMU as we always had, and then held the metal Davis School District Odyssey Elementary School Alta High School Renovation and new Performing Arts Center 13
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