Light & Natural

Great care was taken to orient most of the windows to the north or south. Andersen Windows and Hoffman, LLC developed a new window product specifically for River Crest school that would meet the 20% visible transmittance requirement to control glare and unwanted heat gain from the large east, west, and south-facing windows. This is also the first time Andersen Windows has used 100% FSC wood in an entire project, especially with this many windows. 88% of the rooms currently have daylight and views. This percentage will increase to over 90% when six more classrooms are added. Several corridors also have view windows.

There are clerestory windows in the north walls of the gymnasium and cafeteria, and more clerestory windows illuminate the foyer and main corridor. A huge curving glass wall separates the main corridor from the media center, invites passers-by to look into it, and provides a view from the media center of the stunning mural which incorporates student artwork depicting the history of the city of Hudson. It also introduces light from the clerestory windows into the media center and is decorated with a sandblasted wave.

Decorative glass block is creatively used to transmit light through partitions into rooms that require visual privacy. The story area is close to one of the media center windows and illuminated by a curved glass block wall. The Guidance room is an interior space lit by a clerestory. Its glowing curved glass block is a striking feature of the foyer. In the cafeteria, glass block walls frame the proscenium and allow teachers to monitor student behavior behind them. The wave theme that is painted on accent walls is picked up in the bubble and wave patterns in the glass block.