The Language Arts and Social Sciences building at West Valley College, located in Saratoga, California, has accomplished LEED Silver certification. The 42,000-SF building received a LEED score of 51 and took nearly two years to be completed. Throughout the entire process, the project team went to great lengths to save and refurbish as many elements of the existing building as possible. Because of this effort, the project was able to maintain 91.6% of the existing walls, floors and roof, while earning 2 LEED points for MRc1.1.

Several sustainable strategies were employed in attaining LEED Silver certification. Abundant daylighting is achieved by using clerestory windows on the exterior walls, balanced by skylights above the wall opposite the clerestories. Direct solar radiation is controlled by taking advantage of the existing large roof overhang and interior roller shades. Other sustainable design features include double-glazed aluminum windows in all existing and new window locations and new direct/indirect fluorescent light fixtures in classrooms and office spaces. In the classrooms, cooling is provided via active chilled beams.

One of the major challenges for obtaining LEED Silver certification was earning enough Sustainable Site credit points despite the limited basic services in the surrounding neighborhood. Another obstacle was public transportation—even though there are plenty of bus routes nearby and within a ¼ mile radius of the building entrance, the bus stops are located beyond the ¼ mile maximum walking distance.

The Language Arts and Social Sciences Building at West Valley College achieved an energy cost savings of 28.8%.