College Park Elementary School has earned a Special Recognition Award in the 2012 City of Virginia Beach Planning Commission Design Awards Program.

According to the city website, the Planning Commission Design Awards “showcase outstanding quality and innovative design solutions in the built environment, which have furthered the design principles of the City’s various design guidelines to enhance the general community appearance of the City of Virginia Beach.”

Dills Architects put in the award nomination, which pointed out that the elementary school “provides an excellent opportunity for educating building occupants, as well as the local community, about environmental issues related to sustainable building design and construction.”

The school, which was completed in August of 2011, is the first school in Virginia Beach that is designed to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum level criteria. In addition, due to specific sustainable design features, the building also saves 55 percent more energy than a typical building.

Those features include a solar thermal system on the roof that provides heating for 50 percent of the floor area, daylight harvesting that dims building lighting when daylight is present and uses occupancy sensors to turn lights on and off as well as the use of LED lighting fixtures throughout the building.

You can view the complete award nomination document here to see the transformation of the school – from design to construction.

The award will be presented at the Hampton Roads Sustainable Living Expo this Saturday, Sept. 29.