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A few years ago，Paul Gerner began to gather a group of architects in Las Vegas to ask them what it would take to design a public school that used 50 percent less energy, cost much less to build and obviously improved student learning. “I think half of them fell off their chairs, ”Gerner says.
Gerner manages school facilities (设施) for Clark County, Nevada，a district roughly the size of Massachusetts. By 2018,143,000 additional students will enter the already crowded publiceducation system. Gerner needs 73 new schools to house them. Four architecture teams have nearly finished designing primary school prototypes (样品) ；they plan to construct their schools starting in 2009. The district will then assess how well the schools perform, and three winners will copy those designs in 50 to 70 new buildings.
Green schools are appearing all over, but in Clark County，which stands out for its vastness, such aggressive
