The Next-Gen Gym

Natural light and improved ventilation bring comfort, savings at Mead Middle School’s high-performance gymnasium.

By Paul C. Hutton, AIA

Students at Mead Middle School enjoy their new gym’s quiet environment, uniform natural lighting and fresh air. The gym is lit using daylight alone. Photo by Ed Lacasse

The days when teachers used opaque projectors and discussed mainframes in computer technology classes are long gone. So why teach physical education in spaces that use the construction technology of 25 years ago? Education has changed, and so should the buildings where education happens.

At the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, Colo., physical education has made the leap into the 21st century of “high-performance schools” with a new generation of gymnasium design. High-performance school design offers lower operating and utility costs, decreased environmental impacts and, most importantly, improved learning for students through healthy, comfortable and well-lit environments. The architectural terms “green” and “sustainable” typically have been used to describe buildings that reduce energy consumption and utilize recycled materials, but “high performance” refers to buildings that go beyond sustainability to provide enhanced learning environments.

In December 2002, our firm, Hutton Ford Architects, presented the St. Vrain Valley School District with an intriguing proposal: We would design their next gymnasium for the same cost as their current gymnasiums, but with better indoor air quality, quieter acoustics and lower energy consumption. How could we be sure of achieving such performance? We would combine the principles of displacement ventilation with daylighting.

Completed in early 2004, the Mead Middle School gym addition in Mead, Colo., may be considered a prototype for future gym construction in the district and is a test case for integrating new technologies.

Paul Hutton, AIA, is a principal at Denver-based Hutton Ford Architects P.C., an architecture firm specializing in sustainable design. E-mail this author >>>