Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Daylighting Leads to a More Engaging Environment

  • 10/01/15
Daylighting

Westside Christian High School gave students the benefits of natural light by installing Series M74 DS units for daytime lighting in the gymnasium.

Westside Christian High School is a non-denominational educational facility located in Tigard, Ore. After 33 years, the student population had outgrown the current space, prompting the construction of a new campus near downtown Portland.

Incorporating daylight into the school’s new interior gym became a main objective for administrators who wanted students to benefit from exposure to natural light during the school day while reducing the building’s electricity use.

The original strategy was to install traditional skylights, but concerns about adequate illumination and hot spots prompted the architect to seek other options.

InteriorTech, a building specialty contractor, proposed the use of Solatube Daylighting Systems, which, when compared to traditional skylights, provide a greater abundance and higher quality of light while reducing energy use.

Ultimately, InteriorTech installed 20 Solatube SkyVault Series M74 DS units for daytime lighting, complemented by LED lights with timers for nighttime lighting.

The advanced optics of the SkyVault Series captures massive amounts of high quality daylight for abundant output during athletic events, assemblies, and concerts.

With daylight illuminating the gym, electric lights stay off during the day allowing the school to cut its electricity consumption, lower its utility bills and minimize its carbon footprint.

Studies have shown that natural sunlight helps students feel more engaged, optimistic, and perform better overall. In addition to gymnasiums, daylighting can also be utilized in traditional classroom settings. Solatube’s SolaMaster Series is ideally suited to the classroom, providing clear, natural daylight to increase student engagement and responsiveness.

www.solatube.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Round Rock ISD Completes New Early College High School

    Round Rock ISD near Austin, Texas, recently announced that construction is complete on a new, 46,500-square-foot campus for Early College High School, according to a news release. The new facility will allow the school’s students and staff to move from portables into a permanent building and increase its enrollment to 500.

  • College of the Desert Hits Construction Milestone on New Campus

    College of the Desert recently announced that the construction of its new Palm Springs Campus in Palm Springs, Calif., recently reached a major construction milestone, according to a news release. The college is partnering with general contractor C.W. Driver Companies, which recently “topped out” the facility by placing the final beam in its structure.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.