Northside Elementary School has received Platinum certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, with the Green Building Certification Institute for the school’s design focused on efficiency and sustainability. It now stands as the first elementary school in North Carolina to be certified LEED Platinum.

Before opening its doors in the fall of 2013, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools worked alongside Moseley Architects to create a school that was capable of supporting 585 students. Where the school now stands was once the grounds of the Orange County Training School, meaning that the site has been a place of education since 1924. A display within the school shows a visual timeline to represent the history of the area, as well as the large case of the original cornerstone of the school.

The design of Northside is built around the concept of sustainability. With this in mind, the design team and the school district cooperated to surpass their own expectations, yet remained on budget and on time for completion.

The school building incorporates signs that describe the sustainability brief descriptions of several sustainable design features utilized at Northside. The signs point to the Building Dashboard, which contains further information about these sustainable features. The teachers of Northside even incorporate these features into customized lesson plans and projects.

The managing principal for the project for Mosely Architects, Jim Copeland, said in a press release that he is proud of what they and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools have accomplished in the formation of Northside Elementary.

For more information about Northside Elementary School, click here.

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