Ratcliff continues its long term history partnering with Blue Oak to provide innovative and sustainable 21st century learning environments for their student body. Our first project together was the award-winning historic renovation and addition for Blue Oak School’s lower school (grades K-4), and then a renovation of an existing two-story office structure to serve as their temporary middle school (grades 5-8). After several site studies, the school decided on a downtown site for their new permanent middle school to create synergy between the existing lower school across the street and downtown Napa. The new 2-story, 27,000 sf campus features both indoor and outdoor learning spaces to include an innovation lab, humanities, social studies, math and music classrooms, a collaborative conference area, administration and a 9,500 sf gymnasium. All of the first-floor learning spaces and gym include roll up doors for outdoor education, group projects and larger gathering opportunities. The project also includes a full commercial kitchen that will be used for teaching and community / school events. To continue on the sustainability effort from the lower school, the middle school campus will be run solely on electricity with no gas use on campus. This allows for reduced construction costs and opportunities for future on-site power generation. Other sustainable features include heating and cooling via heat-pump, an EUI that exceeds the baseline by more than 75%, healthy material choices, and limited irrigation/water use.
Ratcliff continues its long term history partnering with Blue Oak to provide innovative and sustainable 21st century learning environments for their student body. Our first project together was the award-winning historic renovation and addition for Blue Oak School’s lower school (grades K-4), and then a renovation of an existing two-story office structure to serve as their temporary middle school (grades 5-8). After several site studies, the school decided on a downtown site for their new permanent middle school to create synergy between the existing lower school across the street and downtown Napa. The new 2-story, 27,000 sf campus features both indoor and outdoor learning spaces to include an innovation lab, humanities, social studies, math and music classrooms, a collaborative conference area, administration and a 9,500 sf gymnasium. All of the first-floor learning spaces and gym include roll up doors for outdoor education, group projects and larger gathering opportunities. The project also includes a full commercial kitchen that will be used for teaching and community / school events. To continue on the sustainability effort from the lower school, the middle school campus will be run solely on electricity with no gas use on campus. This allows for reduced construction costs and opportunities for future on-site power generation. Other sustainable features include heating and cooling via heat-pump, an EUI that exceeds the baseline by more than 75%, healthy material choices, and limited irrigation/water use.
