An educational environment stretching beyond the classroom – River Grove Elementary School By: Arcadis Arcadis, a leading global company delivering sustainable architecture, engineering and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets, has designed and delivered River Grove Elementary School, a fully electric, certified path-to-net-zero school building in Lake Oswego, Oregon. River Grove Elementary School is a thoughtful, environmentally progressive replacement of the original site, built in 1967. Located just outside of Portland, the school is designed to provide a flexible and varied learning environment for each of its 390 students and address the challenges of a fragmented school community caused by the previous layout and the impact of a global pandemic. Student input was central to shaping Arcadis’ vision and planning principles. Students at River Grove shared how their school environment could better support their learning, wellbeing and interactions with the natural world, which became key elements of the building’s design. Additional input from community gatherings, listening sessions, workshops, tours and surveys helped maintain momentum and community support, with publicly available documentation ensuring accountability along the way. Originally a series of separate buildings connected by covered walkways, Arcadis saw the future of River Grove as extending beyond the classroom, fostering … Continue reading Next-Gen Architecture at Lake Oswego Elementary