Holland Construction Services is building a new $26 million junior high school for O’Fallon School District #90. The 145,000-square-foot school will be on 42 acres along Seven Hills Road and will feature a gymnasium, 40 teaching areas, a library/media center and a “cafetorium,” which combines a cafeteria  and performance stage. The campus will have a courtyard, baseball and softball fields, and a soccer field with a running track. FGM Architects Planners is providing architectural services for the project.

The Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC) offers an Illinois Guide to Healthy, High Performing School Construction which provides an impressive list of links and web resources on green school construction, and explores less traditional issues such as hand washing facilities, student-to-cafeteria-size ratio, kitchen design to facilitate healthy food prep, and design standards for school health centers.

If you’re involved in school construction, you may want to sign up for a web broadcast on March 7, 2 p.m. sponsored by Environmental Design + Construction magazine and the Green Design Solutions conference, featuring Rod Wille, Senior Vice President and Manager of Sustainable Construction for Turner Construction, a leading builder of traditional and sustainable projects. The webinar “The Dollars and Sense of Green Schools: Perception & Reality” will discuss common perceptions about the costs and benefits of building Green, and offer facts from national studies, project case studies and the company’s own experience that to support or disprove those perceptions

According to Interior Design magazine, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability (AASHE) in Higher Education has passed a new policy requiring all U.S. campus construction to be built according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Eleven Federal agencies, several state and local governments, and private developers already follow the LEED Green Building Rating System.

In addition, at least 200 presidents are expected to sign on to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment by June, pledging to eliminate campus greenhouse gas emissions over time.

RE Business Online reports that construction is well underway on the St. Louis Community College (SLCC) Wildwood Campus at Missouri Routes 109 and Old 100. The $18 million project includes a 73,000-square-foot building with 25 classrooms, a science lab, an art studio, computer labs, and faculty and administrative offices. St. Louis-based Wm. B. Ittner Inc. provided architectural and design services and Kwame Building Group is construction manager and owner representative. The project is targeted for LEED certification.

College construction in the U.S. totaled more than $14.5 billion in 2005, including $9.8 billion spent on entirely new buildings, according to the “2006 College Construction Report” published by College Planning & Management magazine. Projections for future construction indicate that college and university construction will continue to expand. Locally, the St. Charles County Business Record recently reported that one of the largest economic impacts from Lindenwood College has come from construction. Lindenwood estimated that the economic impact on St. Charles County from its construction projects alone is $175 million a year.

In Missouri, Governor Matt Blunt has approved a university construction plan that will include nearly $314 million in 22 construction projects at state colleges and universities. The construction program will be financed through the sale of $350 million in student loans.