The Mercury News: Q&A: Designer Helen Pierce on what makes a school “green” — and why it matters

Helen Pierce, the San Jose-based design director of architectural firm LPA, shares her insight.

By Elissa Miolene

^{Photo by Dai Sugano, used with permission of The Mercury News}

Helen Pierce has spent her life creating buildings for the future. As the design director of LPA, an architectural firm based out of California and Texas, Pierce has focused on bringing sustainability to the forefront of her designs, incorporating off-grid, net-zero and green infrastructure to 57 educational projects throughout her three-decade career.

That includes the designing of Menlo Park’s TIDE Academy — a science, technology and engineering-focused school in the Sequoia Union High School District that won a top award for its architecture earlier this year — among other award-winning projects spanning the Bay Area, including the Los Medanos College student union and kinesiology complex in Pittsburg, and the Agnew K-12 Campus in San Jose. Pierce spoke with the Bay Area News Group about why this type of design matters, and how green design can benefit students throughout the region.

Helen Pierce: We know that where students learn matters. Spaces that are adequately sized, adequately lit, and have access to daylight and views all support student learning and teacher teaching. As you can imagine, if you worked in a cramped space with no windows, you probably wouldn’t show up to work very often. But if you worked in a beautiful office with lots of windows and great views, you’d come into work every day, right? You’d enjoy it, and you’d you’d feel more like a human being.

At a very basic level, the spaces that we all love and enjoy as human beings, that support all our needs as human beings, are the spaces you’re going to learn and teach best in. You’re more likely to show up every day, not get sick, and thrive.

Read the full interview in The Mercury News.