01.02.2012

Steve Turckes on Sustainable Schools in Architectural Record

Every January, Architectural Record does a feature on 21st Century Schools. This year, the feature piece was on Sustainable Solutions and Perkins+Will's Steve Turckes reflected on the role of green schools over time and in a changing economy. Excerpt below:

Architects confirm that the slumped economy doesn't seem to be slowing the movement. “I haven't seen a decreased interest in green schools. If anything, it's going in the other direction,” says Steven Turckes, who leads Perkins+Will's K–12 practice, which has completed more than 2,500 school projects in the past seven decades. When Turckes began working in this sector in the mid-1990s, sustainability “just wasn't part of the lexicon,” he says. “Now, when clients are looking for architects to design schools, they want us to demonstrate that we know our way around sustainable design. Schools understand the benefits to them, both in terms of operational savings and the potential benefit to student performance.”

Still, misgivings persist about the price of going green. “We've come a long way as an industry in being able to address those concerns and do it with a straight face,” Turckes says. He generally tells clients that he can deliver a LEED-Silver facility with “very little, if any, additional costs.” While specific elements might come at a premium, savings are recouped in other areas. “Spend a little bit more on an exterior wall, and perhaps you don't need to spend as much on mechanical systems,” he says. Plus, eco-friendly features pay off over time, as schools are typically designed to last for 50 to 75 years.