Elizabeth R. Martin School is a 111,150 square foot, LEED Silver, new school building constructed for the School District of Lancaster. This facility accommodates children from kindergarten through 8th grade. It was built to replace Lancaster School District’s old K-5 school building, which had been constructed in the 1950s. The new $18 million school has two floors of classrooms, in addition to shared spaces such as the library, nursing center, administrative offices, a cafeteria, and a gymnasium (which has the capability to function as an auditorium). The kindergarten area was designed with young children and their teachers in mind, using a paired-classroom system that provides shared storage options for classrooms. Also included in the kindergarten construction are bathroom plumbing fixtures designed to accommodate small children. Classrooms for grades one through eight are distributed among two floors, with younger grades on the first floor and older on the second. The project was partially funded by federal sustainability grants. The entire building utilizes natural light through the incorporation of larger windows with lower sills. Other sustainable design features include motion sensors for lights, low flow plumbing fixtures, and the use of daylighting in all of the classrooms. Reese Hackman provided energy modeling/LEED, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, electrical, and low voltage system design services for this project. In November 2015, American School & University Magazine recognized this project for Outstanding Design in the Combined-Level School category.
