El Rancho Unified School District

District-Wide Innovation Learning Laboratories

The project consisted of full architecture and engineering renovations of 12 “Learning Lab” classrooms with high emphasis on teaching and learning in a very quiet setting. The spaces ranged in size from 1000 to 1500 gsf each. The spaces were distributed across 8 of the 16 El Rancho school campus facilities.

The design team surveyed each building for the quality of the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems to support the renovated occupancies. Capital Engineers performed a Title-24 envelope analysis to determine the quality of the building and that resulted in recommendations to replace the existing glazing/windows in order to support optimizing daylighting benefits along with improving the energy efficiency to support the HVAC systems performance.

The spaces were served with original roof top mechanical systems that were surveyed as well for maintainability, energy efficiency and environmental safety. Approximately half of the existing roof top units were replace with new units while the other half had reconfigurations and maintenance performed to operate effectively. Water saving low plumbing fixtures were designed in along with new high efficiency lighting systems and controls. The school system had the design team meet the criteria for HDLE sustainability standards and certification. The project was full design-bid-build delivery and construction administration services were provided by Capital Engineering.