It's all about the sun. Because the sun and its path through the sky is one of the most important influences on the design of a building, architects spend time carefully thinking about the orientation, or position, of buildings on the site. They will consider how sunlight warms the buildings at various times of the day or year, impacting the comfort of the students and staff. The amount of heat generated by the sun will also impact how much energy must be spent in heating or cooling the buildings through the year.

Hand sketches by William Leddy, principal architect of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, illustrate several possible solutions for arranging the three new buildings (classroom, library, and cafeteria) on the Nueva School campus. As Leddy explains, "At the very beginning of the project, as pencil hits paper, we have to fully understand the path of the sun and how the wind moves. Every building site is different."

The bottom left corner of each sketch shows a small sun symbol and an arrow. This indicates the sun shining from the south to the north, when the light and heat are most intense. While trying to figure out the best arrangement for the buildings Leddy's site diagram sketches also note the steepest hill, and the direction of the wind, shown by three "squiggles" and an arrow coming from the left or west.

Leddy has nicknamed this possible solution: "The Hook." In this scheme, only two buildings would be constructed around a central courtyard, which would be shaded from the hottest afternoon sun by the building at the bottom of the sketch.

The sun is not as intense in the early morning hours of the school day, and the courtyard provides a comfortable place for meeting. Shadows are long in this photograph, meaning that the sun is not so high in the eastern sky. But as the sun moves toward the south and the sunlight becomes most intense around noon, the wooden screens will help shade the classrooms windows behind them.

In the end, the architects at Leddy Maytum Stacy decided to design three buildings on the site around a central courtyard. North is to the upper right in this site analysis drawing, while the path of the sun in the sky - rising in the east in the morning, moving to the south around noon, and setting in the west in the evening - is shown in a large arc. The drawing also notes that the roof of the classroom building will be covered in photovoltaic (or solar) panels to take advantage of the southern sun when it is most intense and highest in the sky. Today, the photovoltaic panels provide 21% of the school's electricity needs. (This early idea also proposed a wind turbine and a water collection tower that were not built.)