Ratcliff has been partnering with Blue Oak for over 20 years creating innovative and sustainable 21st century learning environments for their student body. Our first project was the award-winning historic renovation and addition to Blue Oak School’s lower school (grades K-4), and then a renovation of an existing two-story office structure to serve as their temporary middle school (grades 5-8). After several site studies, the school decided to build a new permanent middle school to create synergy between the lower school across the street and downtown Napa. The two-story, 27,000 square foot campus features both indoor and outdoor learning spaces, including an innovation lab, humanities, social studies, math and music classrooms, a collaborative conference area, administration and a 9,500 square foot gymnasium. All of the first-floor learning spaces and gym include roll up doors for outdoor education, group projects and large gatherings. A full commercial kitchen is going to be used for teaching and community/school events. In line with the school’s commitment to sustainability, the new campus is designed to run solely on electricity, which also reduced construction costs and created options for future on-site power generation. Other sustainable features include heating and cooling via heat-pump, an EUI that exceeds the baseline by more than 75%, healthy material choices, and limited irrigation/water use.