By: Deborah Johnson Wood
He says he’s an interior designer who thinks like an architect. That thinking is what snagged Kyle Baker top honors for the 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition spearheaded by the U.S. Green Building Council’s West Michigan chapter.
The challenge? To redesign Grand Rapids Public Schools’ 52-year-old Brookside Elementary using LEED’s eco-friendly design principles.
Baker, 32, graduates Saturday from Kendall College of Art and Design with a degree in interior design. He entered the competition last year, but says “I pretty much got my butt kicked.” So this year, he geared up.
“I really wanted to win,” says Baker, who received his award at a USGBC gala event last month.
“I explored cutting-edge technology to determine if the roof shape could hold rainwater to help insulate the school and then be recycled to use in the toilets. I placed a wind turbine in front of the school to produce some energy, and made sure every space in the school has daylight.”
Baker added a second story, and instead of putting a hallway down the middle of the building with classrooms on either side, he put the hall along one side of the building (on both levels) with classrooms on one side and a 25-foot-high window wall on the other.
The two-story lobby has spaces to plant live trees. A catwalk on the second level crosses the space to join two learning areas.
Baker won a $1,000 cash prize and the opportunity to present his design at the November Greenbuild Expo in Boston, MA.
All the competitors’ designs will go to the GRPS for possible implementation.
Source: Kyle Baker
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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