We are excited to announce that Heartwood Annex at the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh has received Core certification from Living Future’s Living Building Challenge®. Heartwood Annex is the second project globally to achieve Core certification. The world’s most rigorous performance standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge provides “a framework for design, construction, and the symbiotic relationship between people, our community, and nature.” The LBC consists of seven performance categories, or “Petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Each Petal is subdivided into imperatives; Core-certified projects achieve ten core imperatives that address the fundamental tenets of each Petal.

In Waldorf education, the eighth-grade is focused on strengthening independence and thinking beyond the individual as students explore the outside world. This concept was integral to the design of Heartwood Annex and its pursuit of Core Certification. Core resonated with the entire project team due to the emphasis on connection to nature, equity, and the need for a building to be loved alongside typical water, energy, and material goals. Through presentations and workshops, students learned about biophilic design and offered input on important aspects of their new learning environment, including sunlight, natural ventilation, and materials, inside and outside spaces, sensory variability, and more.

From an energy standpoint, Heartwood Annex has greatly exceeded client and design team expectations, with measured annual energy consumption at 86% below baseline. Future installation of a rooftop photovoltaic array will help the project achieve net-zero energy, but we are excited to see how the strategic design of passive and active systems, as well as a deep understanding of classroom use and operations, have contributed to high performance.

The Heartwood Annex project team included Jendoco Construction (General Contractor), BranchPattern (MEP Engineer), and Common Ground (Civil and Structural Engineer). Read the Living Future project case study at the link below.