The Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will use much less energy and let much more daylight into its classrooms solely because of the influence of an integrated team. This unique project serves as a direct comparison to a conventional process, showing that integration improves green outcomes when sustainability is an expressed project goal.

The design process for the new Sarah E. Goode began with a prototype that prescribed much of the design: the site plan, building massing, structure, and orientation, programmatic adjacencies, and elevations. Despite these narrow constraints, CPS and the Public Building Commission of Chicago (PBC), which manages project development for CPS and other city agencies, wanted the project to achieve LEED Silver certification. Luckily, PBC includes an eco-charrette as part of their standard process, and sustainability consultant Helen J. Kessler, of HJKessler Associates, and PBC sustainability manager Deeta Bernstein used that opportunity to introduce the principles of integrative design and explore design options.

Their stated goal was to improve energy performance while lowering first cost and providing a good learning environment for the students. Using the mantra from the 2012 Integrative Process (IP)–ANSI Consensus National Standard Guide (Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability 2012), “Everybody Engaging Every Issue Early,” Kessler helped the team focus on the relationships among systems, using an holistic, iterative, non-linear process. She challenged the team to think outside the box by asking, “How can we improve on the performance of the prototype without changing the floor plan or the location on the site?” Several core goals came out of the discussion: increase the amount of daylight, simplify construction, reduce cost, implement a more effective HVAC system, and engage the community. The charrette included all members of the design team, including architect Jennifer Costanzo, principal of STR Partners, the mechanical engineer Sachin Anand, of dbHMS, and the landscape architect Terry Ryan, principal of Jacobs/Ryan Associates, as well as representatives from the school system and outside stakeholders.

After multiple iterations that considered the costs and benefits of a ground-source heat pump system instead of the standard rooftop packaged mechanical system with variable air volume distribution, the team chose the heat pump option, which eliminated both a rooftop penthouse and extensive ductwork throughout the building. In this case it was discovered that the ground-source heat pumps, which one normally thinks of as costing more than standard systems, actually cost less. This solution also allowed for reduction of the floor-to-floor height and therefore of the overall building height. The team then used an iterative daylight and energy modeling process to decide how much to enlarge the windows in the classrooms to maximize daylight. The hollow-core slab structure was swapped out for a more standard steel deck with concrete topping, allowing for greater flexibility and ease of construction.

Conveniently, another school that was based much more closely on the original prototype went out to bid at the same time as the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, providing a real-world cost comparison. The Goode School design reduced construction cost by over two percent while reducing energy use significantly and providing an improved learning environment.

Another result of the project was how it changed each individual’s mindset. PBC’s sustainability manager became a “believer” that the integrative design process really works and that one really can deliver green while lowering first cost. The architect, Jennifer Costanzo, also became a believer: “I thought that since we were working from a prototype, the charrette would be a waste of time. But then the owner actually suggested meaningful changes,” she later told Chicago Architect Magazine (Petersen 2014).

And then sometimes one just gets lucky: the school principal, who had not been directly engaged in most of the design discussions, happened to sit in on a construction meeting and heard that the project was just a couple of points shy of achieving LEED Platinum. Not knowing much about LEED, the principal asked, “What is this ‘Platinum’ thing, and can’t we do that?” Kessler had never gotten CPS to approve a thermal comfort survey before, so that hadn’t been on the table.But with the principal’s support, the survey and a couple of other operations-related credits were approved. Now students are working on the thermal comfort survey, and the project has been certified Platinum.