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New school facilities have the potential to profoundly affect the
lives of many generations—through teaching and nurturing children
but also through green building that respects health, natural resources,
and the environment. Located in the heart of the city's
Richmond District, the award-winning Argonne Child Development
Center made significant advances for the city's schools. San Francisco's
first solar-powered school, it demonstrates what 450 architects does,
and also how and why.
This case study reviews the pioneering design of the Argonne
Child Development Center:
green design influence
Committed to an environmentally conscious approach to life and
architecture, 450 architects enjoys working with educators and local
communities to create memorable, safe, earth-friendly learning
environments. So, we were delighted to be in a position to influence
our client, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), to take
its first steps toward sustainable building. We also advocated to the
local community on solar performance, green building, and environmentally
sensitive materials selections.
making the case
The client didn't ask for a sustainable building. But because 450
architects believes in sustainable design, we wanted to make the
case for it. Bringing experience and expertise in green building to
the task, our design team took the initiative to explore green design
options. To convince SFUSD to go green, we counseled this client on the
use of green products as well as renewable energy, and their costs and
benefits.
To help make the case, the design team ran model studies on the
Pacific Energy Center heliodon. The findings ultimately enabled our
design to incorporate roof slope and overhangs that optimize daylighting,
take advantage of seasonal sun and shade, and manage heat-buildup and
shadow-casting.
going the extra mile
Meantime, 450 architects sought grant monies, beyond the project
budget, to finance the design and installation of a photovoltaic (PV)
system for the building. Coupled with neighborhood fund-raisers and
solar demos conducted at the site by the design team, this brought in
enough new money to include a solar energy system in the design.
Later, our design team secured a grant to finance low-maintenance
native plants for the landscaping. Parents and nearby residents also
applauded an informational flyer we prepared for them that outlines the
benefits and appearance of the proposed solar installation.
This project advances a broader aspect of our mission: to minimize the
long-term operating expenses of our public-sector clientele. Once
installed, photovoltaics operate at no additional cost and with no loss
in efficiency, even as they continue to save taxpayers money far in the
future.
Overall, our advocacy helped persuade the School District to integrate
the newest solar technology, sustainable building practices, and select
green materials into the Argonne Center. The result is San Francisco's
first solar-powered school, an asset to the School District and the
neighborhood. We believe that this experience also helps move SFUSD
toward incorporating sustainable design practices in future facilities
construction. The Argonne Center serves as a prototype.
community outreach
Community outreach—a hallmark of how our studio works—helped
neighbors express their goals and reach a consensus with SFUSD to produce
an end result that pleases all parties.
Originally, the School District proposed to close the existing,
one-room Argonne Center and sell the parcel of land on which it is
located. The district ultimately decided to keep the property and
expand the facility. 450 architects worked extensively with the
local community through programming meetings and design charettes.
 We examined local demographics that identified a large number of
youngsters in the school's age bracket and approaching pre-school age.
This evidence demonstrated a real-world need for a larger facility and
helped win community support for the project even as it grew to an
expansion four times the size of the existing nursery school. Neighbors
feared a loss of open space and a negative impact on their much-loved
community garden—the oldest one in San Francisco. Successful
organizing resulted in neighborhood representation in the design process,
ensuring that new classrooms could be added to the site to meet the
district's needs for more space as well as preserving community
garden beds.
The community appreciated the design team's extra efforts—writing and
winning the grants, educating them about renewable energy—and a
collaborative spirit prevailed. Ultimately, neighbors wanted this
pre-school to be a sheltering and celebratory space for their children
and their community garden. Neighbors and architects shared the spirit of
the project and even some of the work itself—pulling together to
plant the landscape and to repair a garden greenhouse after it was
damaged in a storm.
sustainable design
Simple strategies create a welcoming and comfortable space at the
Argonne Center with minimal environmental impact.
low-energy design
The design integrates five PV solar collectors into the roof of the
classroom wing. They generate electric power for the school, on cloudy
days as well as weekends, contributing substantial savings on operating
costs. The translucent PV modules act as skylights, as well, bringing
ample, diffused daylighting into the school.
This building has no mechanical cooling and a basic hydronic heating
system, making simple but effective use of San Francisco's mild climate.
Its deeply shaded east-west solar orientation allows for plenty of shade
and ventilation in summer and passive heat gain in winter.
The single-room-deep design achieves passive cooling through
cross- and stack-effect ventilation. Classrooms can be used almost
year-round without artificial lighting. The building's solar-electric
system generates a large portion of the energy load.
green materials palette
Providing an environment for children that is healthy, bright, and
connected to the outside naturally expresses itself as well in a desire
to use non-toxic and recycled materials. While the entire proposed green
materials palette didn't pass muster with School District guidelines,
some of it did. Environmentally sensitive, low-VOC building and interior
materials included recycled-content carpet flooring, formaldehyde-free
particle board treated with soy-based stains, bio-composite paneling,
and sustainably harvested wood.
low-maintenance landscaping
The 0.88-acre site is landscaped with native, drought-resistant plants,
including native grasses and strawberries, which require no permanently
installed irrigation. The design also preserves a mature grove of
eucalyptus. A much-loved, long-established community garden—the
largest one in San Francisco—wraps around the school to the north
and east. Containing more than 100 garden beds, it supplies food to
numerous families as well as a local homeless shelter. Neighborhood
gardeners, pleased with efforts to honor their space, gave each class
at the Argonne Center a garden plot of its own.
careful siting and scale
 The 6,078 s.f. Argonne Center is part of a dense, low-rise
residential neighborhood. The design significantly enlarged an
existing facility, fitting in with an efficient site plan. Linear
classroom construction provides flexibility for multiple uses. Offering a
clear distribution of school functions, the plan includes areas for play
and high-energy activity and others for quiet activity. On the "quiet" side of the school, the design extends glassed-in reading alcoves toward the
garden so students can absorb its sights and smells. Purposely sloping down
to the west, the building doesn't shade the adjacent community garden.
The design creates an array of useful outdoor spaces. The street-facing
administration wing and perpendicular classroom wing enclose a sheltered
yet open play area that takes in the southern sun. A large covered
walkway, a major feature of the building's passive solar design,
provides shade in summer and allows the sun to shine into classrooms in
winter. It also extends the classroom for teaching and outdoor play in
all weather. An amphitheater tucks into a nearby hill.
a teaching tool
450 architects passionately advocated for a solar-powered green
building and also translated ideas and concerns from the diverse
local community into successful design features that harmonize with
the site. And now, the Argonne Center itself is a form of advocacy.
San Francisco's first solar-powered school serves as a solar
demonstration site and teaching tool for the School District. The
facility has twice been an informative starting point for the American
Solar Energy Society's annual national tour of solar homes.
Teachers and students directly experience the use of solar energy in their
own school, as well. Above them, in their classrooms, they see the solar
collectors in an aluminum skylight system. Kids and adults alike enjoy
keeping an eye on the building's energy meter, installed in the reception
area, which tracks the amount of electrical power being generated by the
PV system.
Argonne Child Development Center Project Team
450 architects
Kin Wo Construction, Inc., contractor
Luster Construction Management, construction manager
Acres Engineering, structural engineer
Hawk Engineers, Inc., mechanical engineer
Cliff Lowe Associates, landscape architect
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San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)
American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment
Top Ten Green Buildings, 2003
National School Boards Association
Unanimous Design Citation, 2002
National Tour of Solar Homes, 2001, 2002
AIA San Francisco
Small Firms, Great Projects 2002
"California dominates 2003 AIA Top 10 Green Projects," Architectural Record, May 2003
"A Glorious Modesty," arcCA (Architecture California),
Winter 2002
"Argonne Child Development Center," New Village, Issue 3, 2002
"Argonne Child Development Center, San Francisco's First
Solar-Powered School," CASH Register (Coalition for Affordable School Housing), January 2001
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