Bertschi Living Classroom

The Bertschi School is a private primary school with an environmental, community and civic ethic that they strive to exemplify when constructing and operating their buildings. Bertschi enrolls more than 220 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, on a campus of six buildings spanning an entire city block of Seattle’s Capitol Hill. O’Brien & Company is privileged to have worked on a series of sustainability projects at the school since 2007.

Living Science Classroom

The latest project, the Living Science Wing, is an 1,425-square-foot science classroom including a 276-square-foot attached greenhouse called the Ecohouse. The Ecohouse has a ground floor, mezzanine and a 18-foot-high greenwall.

O’Brien & Company was approached by Bertschi and KMD Architects to join a multi-disciplinary team called the Restorative Design Collective contributing pro-bono services to the project. The Restorative Design Collective is a group of Seattle-area design professionals who share the desire to push themselves and their firms to the forefront of the sustainable building movement, meeting the 2030 Challenge and creating net-zero buildings.

The building is designed to achieve self-sufficiency by generating all of its own energy with renewable resources, harvesting and treating all water on site and operating at maximum levels of efficiency with a healthy indoor environment. The project incorporates an urban agriculture element, with a learning garden and an outdoor classroom, where students can harvest and learn about native huckleberries, wild strawberries and other vegetation. O’Brien & Company has played a key role in understanding and translating the Living Building Challenge rating system for the design team and school and thus driving higher performance.

The new science classroom is available for tours to institutions as well as the public, to inspire and educate fellow building professionals, teachers, students and the community at-large about revolutionary sustainable design practices and green building materials.