"Barwell Road Elementary School shares its site and building with the adjacent Barwell Road Community Center. Pairing the two facilities provides long-needed amenities to the southeastern portion of the city and enables the school and center to reduce duplicate systems through shared mechanical infrastructure. The shared site also made for an efficient use of land space, with less disturbed forest area, and allows student access to gymnasium facilities during school hours.

The Elementary school was designed in accordance with the Triangle Region's High Performance Guidelines for sustainability. Light shelves bring daylight deep into classroom spaces, thus reducing the amount of artificial light needed. Also, by stacking the fourth/fifth-grade wings and the second/third-grade wings, the building footprint was reduced by 25 percent from a single story design.

The 40,000-square-foot, two story community center is integrated into the existing topography so that visitors enter the facility on the upper floor, looking down upon the two gymnasiums. The center also features north-south daylighting through translucent clerestory glazing panels."

American School and University • Architectural Portfolio • November 2008