Punahou School opens new $26 million complex

Honolulu’s nonprofit Punahou School will welcome 300 kindergarten and first-grade students in August into its new, $26 million, 2.5-acre Omidyar K-1 Neighborhood complex. The new facility is named after eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam, who kicked off a capital campaign for the new complex with a $6 million challenge grant. Construction on the 2.5-acre complex started in February 2009 and wrapped up in June.

Students will see rain caught in the bioswale irrigating native-plant gardens and learn to calculate how much energy photovoltaic panels on their classroom rooftops generate. The environmentally friendly components in the seven-building “neighborhood” include the bioswale water catchment system, photovoltaic panels that meet 60 percent of the complex's total energy demands, skylights, natural ventilation and classroom countertops made from recycled wastepaper.

The seven-building complex, which totals 51,000 square feet, may become the largest building in the islands with platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards. If certification is approved, it also will be the second-largest school building in the nation at the platinum level.