Originally targeting LEED Silver certification, HMC recently received news that Los Angeles USD’s Sonia M. Sotomayor Learning Academies was awarded LEED Gold certification—this is HMC’s first high school campus (not just a single building) to earn LEED certification. During the LEED review process, the team submitted an appeal for three more credits and was awarded them, pushing the project into LEED Gold. LAUSD advocated for taking the project from silver to gold, and HMC was able to deliver!

Sonia M. Sotomayor Learning Academies’ biggest LEED points were awarded in the Optimize Energy Performance category, earning 8/10 possible points. Qualifying for that many points was a huge feat for this 220,094-SF campus, and is a testament to the high-performing school. The project achieved an energy cost savings of 21.9 percent using the Title 24-2005, Part 6 methodology.

Other areas that contributed to the high school’s overall LEED score are photovoltaics that are installed as parking shade structures, the campus’ proximity to public transportation, cool roof and daylighting, and that the brownfield site was remediated. LAUSD also has a joint-use agreement with the City of Los Angeles to share the sports fields, which gained another LEED point for the project.