Interactive Resources is providing master planning and comprehensive design services for the modernization and expansion of the historic Nystrom Elementary School for the West Contra Costa Unified School District.  When completed, the project will include a complete modernization of the historic 2-story classroom building, originally constructed in 1942 to support the adjacent Kaiser shipyards. 

 Construction was completed in March, 2012 for the new 13,000 square foot state-of-the-art multi-use building which will double as a community center for the Nystrom neighborhood includes a complete commercial kitchen for the school and community use, a computer laboratory, a library and auditorium with stage. 

 The entire campus is being renovated and redesigned as part of this project, including all parking and play areas. The school is being designed to meet all the criteria of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools program, and will feature integrated photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the new building.  

 Sustainability was a core factor driving the design of this school, not simply an afterthought. From the decision to renovate instead of replacing the aging classroom building, the selection of materials, the placement of windows to enhance natural daylight, the integration of solar photovoltaic panels on the roof, the use of waterlesss urinals, and automatically operated window shades, are among some of these sustainable features. 

 This project is the first of several recent modernization projects in the West Contra Costa Unified School District to have received an HPI rating from the DSA, and will be one of the first schools in the district to be constructed under the districts’ recently passed High Performance Schools resolution.