Post occupancy evaluation (POE) of LEED K-12 schools in the USA
Date
2016
Authors
Mehta, Akash, author
Nobe, MaryEllen, advisor
Olbina, Svetlana, committee member
Bohren, Lenora, committee member
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Abstract
$14 billion dollars were spent on school construction, including new buildings, addition to upgrade of the existing buildings. If such staggering amount of money is spent on construction of schools, why not build them in such a way that schools last longer, are more efficient and are less harmful to the environment. In order for that to happen it is necessary that buildings perform in a way they are designed to perform. To help fill the voids between expected and actual performances of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) structures it is necessary to conduct a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE). The main purpose of this research is to promote the awareness of conducting the POE and inclusion of students in the POE. The important research questions for this research are: (a) how many schools conduct a POE? (b) Out of those who conduct, how many include students?: (c) Do these barriers to conduct POE's differ according to type of school district and region?; (d)What are the solutions for making a POE a routine evaluation with respect to the type of school district?. A survey was sent to 750 LEED K-12 schools in the USA, thirty five completed responses were received in a span of three weeks. Five schools (18.5%) out of the 27 schools conducted a POE, only 2 schools included students. It was observed that the barriers were: 'not familiar with how to conduct a POE, 'lack of financial resources,' 'question of ownership of POE,' 'participation,' 'Commitment,' 'low benefit-cost ratio' and 'time needed to complete the POE', were independent of the type of schools and region the school district is located. Solutions namely: 'Changing the attitude of school administrators', 'changing the attitude of construction professionals', and 'changing the attitudes of design professionals' and 'development of best practices for conducting a POE' were independent on the type of school district. This means that these solutions can be used all over the country in order to improve the negative situation of the POE in schools and thus help to improve the current situation of POE' in schools.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
LEED
K-12
POE (Post Occupancy Evaluation)