Portland State Magazine Winter 2013

WINTER 2013 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 17 For Leite and Palleroni, who are married and partners in their own architecture firm, the project fulfills a shared design mission: to provide “sustainability for people who can’t afford sustainability.” The classroom is the first flagship project of PSU’s new Center for Pub- lic Interest Design, established this year with a $1.5 million anonymous donation. Palleroni, who will head the center, was one of the first senior fellows at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, supported by a $25 mil- lion challenge grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. Leite and Palleroni initiated the classroom project with a grant from the institute to study how to make schools better and greener. They quickly focused on portables, because when school districts need more space fast, they usually can’t afford to build permanent buildings. The issue became personal for Leite and Palleroni in fall 2011, when their daughter was assigned to a fifth-grade class in a portable at a Portland elementary school, amid protests from parents. They studied portables in the district, and found many are 50 to 60 years old, have few windows, and are made of materials that release toxins in the air. The ventilation systems are so noisy that teachers continually turn them on and off so they can be heard, causing spikes in carbon dioxide levels and reduced energy efficiency. The more they learned, the more concerned they were. Strong research links conditions in school buildings with student health and performance. Natural light helps keep kids alert, for instance, while poor ventilation can cause health problems and lower performance on tests. To produce the first prototype, they worked closely with a builder and distributor to keep costs down while targeting improvements that most affect student wellbeing and learning. “When compromises had to be made, we always erred on the side of student health,” Leite says. The result “is so much healthier and cleaner that it is on a different planet,” Palleroni says. “It feels so spacious and airy and light; even though the dimensions are the same, it feels dramatically different.” Gervais School District plans to sell its existing far-flung schools to help pay for new, centrally located SAGE classrooms, starting with an order for up to 20 to house kindergartners, first-graders, and middle school students next fall. Leite and Palleroni plan to monitor the air quality and energy perfor- mance in the new classrooms and continue to improve the design. “We’ve reached the frontier of truly affordable green classrooms,” Palleroni says. “Now the question is how can we go further than that?”  Suzanne Pardington, a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications, wrote “A More Perfect Union” in the Fall 2012 Portland State Magazine. At a glance SAGE (Smart Academic Green Environment) classrooms Architects: Sergio Palleroni and Margarette Leite, PSU Architecture professors Design features: • More and bigger windows, including high clerestory windows under the roof • A ventilation system that brings in more fresh air, reduces noise, and conserves energy • A steel bottom frame to make it easier to move to different school sites • Environmentally safe, non-toxic building materials Manufacturer: Blazer Industries in Aumsville, Oregon Distributors: Blazer Industries and Pacific Construction Services (a division of Pacific Mobile Structures) Partners: PSU Green Building Research Laboratory, PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions, American Institute of Architects Portland, Portland Public Schools, State of Oregon Building Codes Division, Energy Trust of Oregon, Oregon BEST, and Oregon Solutions, among others