The North Shore Community School emphasizes environmental stewardship and hands-on exploration of the natural world.
The school is a K-6 environmental learning charter school located in Duluth Township. TKDA designed the 10,000 SF school addition to LEED silver standards. The addition includes four classrooms, an art lab, greenhouse, restrooms, small conference rooms, and support spaces. TKDA developed an energy model to obtain a 20% energy savings over a conventional code-compliant building. The mechanical system design included high-efficiency HVAC equipment with displacement demand-ventilation, geothermal heat pumps and low flow plumbing fixtures. Occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting sensors monitor the amount of daylighting in the room and control the LED light fixtures accordingly, significantly reducing energy consumption.