The Austin Independent School District’s new and largest elementary campus, the Jaime Padron Elementary School was presented a certificate and plaque as a certified LEED Gold project. The presentation was made by the architecture team, represented by Sandy Stone and Ben Heimsath of Heimsath Architects, and Betty Trent and Mac Ragsdale of Architecture Plus. Accepting the recognition for AISD were Chaneel Daniels, Assistant Director of Bond Planning and Project Administration, Curt Shaw, former Director of Construction Management, and Michael Mann, Project Manager. 
Heimsath Architects, in joint venture with Architecture Plus, completed this innovative adaptive reuse program in time for the 2014 school year. Already, the campus is benefitting from the investment in sustainable design. Over 25% of the energy used by the school in its first year was generated on-site by the roof-top 256 kW solar photovoltaic array. The designation of Padron Elementary as a LEED Gold project is in recognition of the high level of sustainability involved in the completion and management of this building program. Detailed information on the LEED program and project certification process is available from USGBC at http://www.usgbc.org/.