Page 55 - Spring_2018

ArchDC Spring 2018.qxp_Fall 2017 2/22/18 9:14 AM Page 53

New entry bridge to Terraset Elementary School. Photo © Paul Burk
Terraset Elementary School Project: Terraset Elementary School Renovation,

11411 Ridge Heights Road, Reston, VA
For a while in the 1970s and ’80s, earth-covered and
earth-bermed buildings constituted a bit of a trend in Architects/Interior Designers: Architecture, Incorporated
architecture. Responding to the era’s oil embargoes and Landscape Architects/Civil Engineers: Rinker Design Associates
back-to-nature sentiments, architects turned to earth-cov- Structural Engineers: Rathgeber/Goss Associates, PC
ered and earth-bermed designs as a strategy for reducing MEP Engineers: Strickler Associates Ltd.
Cost Estimating Consultants: Downey & Scott, LLC
the energy consumption and site impacts of new buildings.
Contractor: John C. Grimberg Co., Inc.
In the Washington area, widely visited examples of such
buildings include the National Zoo’s Visitor Center and
Great Ape House. Another local example is Terraset To design the school’s renovation, Fairfax County
Elementary School in Reston, Virginia, a school completed hired the Reston-based firm Architecture, Inc. “The goals
in the late 1970s whose name translates as “set in the land.” of the renovation were to bring Terraset up to date with
As originally built, the 70,000-square-foot school Fairfax County Public Schools educational and building
featured earth berms on three sides, a grass roof, and a standards and meet increased demands in capacity,” said
large overhead solar panel array supported on pillars. (The Rusty Shaw, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, senior vice president
array was removed in the 1980s when the solar panels and one of the firm’s two founding partners. Although
proved too delicate for area’s humidity and temperature Shaw and his firm have extensive experience in school
changes.) On the inside, reflecting educational theories of design and renovation, this was the first earth-covered
the day, the school’s floor plan was organized into four building they worked on.
circular areas, referred to as pods, that were arranged in The design for the renovation removed the berms on
a cloverleaf pattern, with each pod in turn divided into two sides of the building (the berms at the back of the
pie-slice classrooms. At the center of the arrangement building were retained), added new window-clad spaces
was the school’s library, with a skylight directly above where the berms had been, and enclosed the building’s
that punched through the grass roof.

REFRESHER COURSE 53