St. Michael Academy is a new private school campus on 166 sprawling acres in Nolensville, Tennessee. This $60M campus is being developed in three phases; the pre-k through 8^th grade building, St. Mother Teresa Catholic Church, the high school building, as well as multiple support buildings around the campus. ICT designed the MEP/T for the 102,000 sqft pre-k through 8^th grade building as part of phase 1. This is the first regional Catholic elementary school in the Diocese of Nashville. ICT was tasked with designing a sustainable building, with the unique ability to use the sustainable qualities as a teaching tool to help students understand energy usage and energy savings. ICT has assisted the owner and contractor with eligible tax credits, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

ICT completed the engineering design for all mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, lighting, power and distribution, low voltage, and IT&S for the facility. Notable design features of these systems include:

• Three-story facility (including basement) made up of classrooms, labs, gymnasium, dining, kitchen, communitive spaces, outdoor classrooms, admin and office spaces, concessions, and sports facilities.
• 350-ton geothermal bore field.
• 34% energy efficiency and utility savings over ASHRAE 90.1 baseline.
• 25% Domestic water use reduction utilizing high efficiency fixtures
• High-efficiency geothermal heat pumps for space loads.
• High-efficiency geothermal outdoor air energy recovery system (DOAS) with demand control ventilation.
• High-efficiency variable volume kitchen hoods with conditioned make-up air.
• High-efficiency condensing instantaneous natural gas domestic water heaters.
• 0.87 W/sf LED lighting design with smart daylighting and occupancy controls.
• Creative site lighting design
• Advanced energy metering of whole-building energy sources for facility use, as well as, to be used for student learning.
• Enhanced outdoor air quality strategies that include cross-contamination prevention, filtration, and carbon dioxide monitoring.
• Security and access control systems, CCTV
• Technology drawings for voice, data wireless infrastructure pathways, spaces and layout of telecommunications equipment rooms, entrance facilities, and MDF/IDF spaces
• Public address/paging
• Horizontal and backbone cabling pathways
• Audio/Video drawings with regard to A/V and CATV infrastructure