Sunrise Elementary School

As part of a statewide initiative to upgrade school facilities, Laramie County School District #1 prepared a five-year master plan to expand or upgrade its facilities, including numerous elementary schools. Sunrise Elementary School will be the prototype for as many as five schools. The concept for each school will reflect the needs of its neighborhood and, at the same time, take advantage of cost savings the prototype offers. The program called for a 48,000-square-foot K-6 facility with media, multipurpose, art and music spaces.
The final building plan fell within 400 square feet of the program space, which included a net-to-gross factor of 1.37. The floor plan is zoned for community use and uses a house concept for safety, team-teaching and the association of spaces for improved program delivery. Each teaching space has a data system that includes an intelligent board with overhead projector (no TVs are used). Accommodations for laptop computers in every room have been made with wireless and hardwire access.
Although not a requirement of the program, 17 of the LEED design concepts were used in the project. Every teaching space has natural light, and every classroom uses daylighting with responsive artificial lighting systems. The heating system uses 92 percent average seasonal efficiency boilers with low-supply water temperatures to optimize the system.

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