Whitman Middle School in Whitman, MA, uses 76,000 SF of GreenGirt Steel™ over metal studs, behind corrugated metal cladding, with mineral wool insulation. It is a new three-story middle school for approximately 675 students in grades 5 through 8, replacing a facility with significant water infiltration and mold, designed for net-zero energy performance by Ai3 Architects, built by Fontaine Brothers, Inc., and installed by Bass Associates.

A net-zero school must hold energy demand low enough for on-site generation to balance it, which places the envelope’s thermal performance at the center of the design. GreenGirt Steel carries the corrugated metal cladding on a thermally broken support outside the framing, holding the wall’s effective R-value where conductive studs would otherwise erode it.