Holdsworth Education Center

A leadership training center for educators, principals, and superintendents throughout the 38-district Texas public school system, the facility includes office buildings, a learning center, and small residential-style casitas for visiting faculty.

The client wanted to invest in systems that would help reduce annual operating costs, including energy, water, and maintenance. The design team worked through developing cost-effective solutions, given the relatively low density of the site. Since the buildings are spread over four acres of land, our solution was a VRF system with dedicated outside air units on some buildings and energy recovery ventilators on others to help reduce the loads. This solution allows individual buildings to be shut down when not in use. The design team also explored locations for on-site renewable energy. Rainwater and condensate water are collected from the larger buildings and re-used for site irrigation.

Image Credit: Peter Molick