Waipahu cafeteria tests 'green' design

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The state plans to build a $4.9 million cafeteria at Waipahu Intermediate School as a pilot project to see if the principles of sustainable development — using the sun, wind and science to light, cool and save energy — can be used successfully in new school buildings.

"The idea is to use this approach on future buildings if it is feasible and then ask ourselves do we get the kinds of benefits that we are looking for," said Russ Saito, comptroller for the state Department of Accounting and General Services. "It's a first of probably many school buildings that are going to be built this way."

Fifty-seven other public schools do not have a cafeteria, about 23 percent of the state's 255 schools. Waipahu Intermediate, like these schools, has been managing with a serving kitchen and small dining area. Meals are prepared off campus and brought in for students.

Gene Kaneshiro, food service branch director for the state Department of Education, said Waipahu Intermediate and Jarrett Middle schools are the only schools above the elementary school level that do not have their own kitchens and cafeterias.

"Waipahu truly deserves a kitchen because of the size of the school," Kaneshiro said. "It's easy to deliver 100 meals in excellent shape, but when you have a 1,000 to deliver you have to look at the quality."

With about 1,400 students and growing, Waipahu is the largest intermediate school in the state and was in desperate need of a larger building to feed its students and function as an auditorium, said Principal Randell Dunn.

The state expects to break ground in September and to be serving hot meals in August 2005. The state has filed a draft environmental assessment for the project with the Office of Environmental Quality Control, which is seeking public comment on the work.

The new 19,200-square-foot building will have a kitchen and dining hall, a permanent stage and back-of-the-house facilities, restrooms, a faculty dining room, dressing rooms and a custodial service room.

"Having their own cafeteria is great for the students," said Salote To'o, who has three children at the school. "The kids need good meals and having their own meals cooked right there is better."

Lamont Christian, president of the school's Parent Teacher Association, said the new cafeteria will also raise students' morale.

"It will give students a sense of keeping up with modernization," Christian said. "Right now they feel like they are behind the times. It will be a way to bring them up to speed and modernize the campus."

Saito said the cafeteria has been positioned to allow natural light inside, which will reduce electricity use. Louvered windows on either side of the building will let in cool air, and thermal chimneys in the roof will draw the hot air up and out of the building. Recycled construction materials will be used wherever possible.

"Not having air-conditioning saves money, and orienting the building so that the effective daylight is maximum saves electricity as well," Saito said.

The LEED certification program was developed by the nonprofit Green Building Council to provide an independent way of showing that a project has sustainable design and materials built into it. The LEED program requires that projects seeking certification be ranked in six subject areas and offers four levels of certification — certified, silver, gold and platinum.

Sustainable design is defined as a development that minimizes or eliminates environmental impacts in five general areas of focus: site selection, water conservation, conservation of energy and resources, selection of materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The goals are to conserve resources and provide a healthy environment for occupants.

Saito said that for this first project the state is seeking only the lowest level of certification.

Among other projects that are including some elements of the philosophy are the University of Hawai'i Medical School in Kaka'ako, Punahou School's new Case Middle School, a new state energy laboratory on the Big Island and the planned National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's National Marine Fisheries Services Honolulu Laboratory in Manoa.

Principal Dunn said the cafeteria will be used for community and school meetings, and will allow the cafeteria manager to incorporate educational aspects of cooking into the curriculum.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.