The Willow School Campus
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“Excellence, Education, Ethics, and Ecology”, is the Willow School’s mantra. A small, independent coeducational day school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, The Willow School is committed to combining academic excellence and the joy of learning with experiencing the wonder of the natural world. Its campus is nestled on a 34-acre wooded site in rural New Jersey countryside, and the building and its surroundings are an integral feature in school’s curriculum. Children at The Willow School study the connections between mathematics, literature, history, and the natural world; observing ecosystem patterns and cycles; and sustaining a thriving natural environment.
As the Willow School embarks on its newest building project, the Health, Wellness and Nutrition Center (HWN Center), 7group collaborated with the project team through a design charrette and is providing energy modeling and commissioning services. The school hopes to expand the student’s vision of stewardship with the new center utilizing curriculum focused on an understanding of food from planting and harvesting to preparation. The new facility, which will include a teaching kitchen, gym, greenhouse and common areas, seeks to exceed LEED Platinum certification by pursuing International Living Building Institute’s Living Building Challenge, a set of design and construction guidelines promoting restorative design. 7group partner Tom Keiter has highlighted the school and its program through several videos, including High Performance Building and Willow School, which can be found in 7group’s video resources.
7group also collaborated with The Willow School in designing their highly integrative campus, and employed energy modeling and consulting, daylighting analysis, and systems and materials selections based on life cycle assessment for the campus’ classroom building (top & bottom left images), which achieved LEED Gold certification, and the art barn (bottom center & right images), which earned LEED Platinum certification.
A radiant floor heating distribution system combined with a high performance thermal envelope minimizes energy consumption in the cold fall and winter months, and skylights maintain high levels of natural light.
At the Willow School Art Barn a 27 kW photovoltaic array produces 36% of the facility’s electric consumption, rainwater and wastewater are harvested for use in the Barn’s graywater recycling system, and daylight provides sufficient illumination for 82% of the building’s interior spaces.
Salvaged Douglas fir wood and terrazzo glass tile repurposed from airplane windshields are showcased as just a couple of the Barn’s sustainable building materials.
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Location
Gladstone, NJ, USA
Project Owner
The Willow School
Architect
HWN Center: Farewell Architects
Art Barn: Hone+Associates
Classroom: Farewell Mills Gatsch
Building Size
HWN Center: 20,000 sf
Art Barn: 13,000 sf
Classroom: 13,500 sf
Completed
HWN Center: Ongoing
Art Barn: September 2007
Classroom: September 2003
LEED® Status
HWN Center: Pursuing LEED
Platinum (Schools 2009)
Art Barn: LEED Platinum
(NCv2.2) Certified
Classroom: LEED Gold
(NCv2.0) Certified
Living Building Challenge
HWN Center: Pursuing Full
Challenge (v2.1)
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