Poudre School District

Key Project Information Project Title: Fossil Ridge High School
Project Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
LEED Status: LEED for New Construction, v2.0/2.1 Silver
Building Size: 296,000 sf
Completion Date: 2004
Total Project Cost: $38.5 million
Energy Cost Savings: $60,000/yr (projected); $271,800 (actual over 3 years)
Energy Use: 39.5 kBtu/sf/yr (projected)
Water Cost Savings: $11,500/yr (projected); $27,852 (actual over 3 years)
Indoor Potable Water Use: 957,000 gal/yr
Outdoor Potable Water Use: 0 gal/yr
Occupancy: 1,800 staff, faculty, and students

Project Overview

Fossil Ridge High School — Fort Collins, Colorado

The design team for Colorado’s Fossil Ridge High School used integrated design to create a structure that saves taxpayers money and actively demonstrates key elements of high-performance buildings. Project features include:

• High-performance building envelope
• Extensive daylighting and dimming controls
• Ice storage tanks
• Natural ventilation
• On-site renewable energy
• Shared community infrastructure

Results

“There is a thought out there that high-performance buildings cost more money. We were handed budgets and we were mandated to stay within those budgets to get a high- performance building and that’s what we did.”— Mike Spearnak, AIA, Director of Planning, Design, Construction, Poudre School DistrictFossil Ridge was not only completed within a typical school budget, but in the building’s three years of operation it has also realized cumulative energy savings of US$271,800 and water savings of US$27,900. These cost reductions have allowed administrators to redirect district funds from maintenance to the classroom.