Georgina Blach Intermediate School

The Georgina Blach Intermediate School rehabilitation and additions opened in 2002 as the first Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) school in Northern California. The high performance strategies focused on daylight, fresh air, and energy efficiency and enabled the school's performance to beat California's Title 24 energy code by 35%. The light from the sun was the unifying feature in all of the design work. We decided to celebrate that at the front entrance to the school. In improving the pick up and drop off area we found that the canopy was going to be ideally located to create a sundial. The new canopy ends in a point that serves as the gnomon and casts a shadow on the pavement where highly accurate stainless steel inserts mark the hours and seasons. Students can directly observe the passage of time in the movement of the shadow. The sundial is registered by the North American Sundial Society.