Local Architects Surpass Expectations with Designs to Match New Learning Models

To adapt to new learning models, school design has to change as well. Local architects are winning awards for their efforts.

By Lucy Bodilly

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Northwest schools are challenging traditional design to match changes in learning techniques and some local architects are winning awards for the effort.

Marysville Getchell High School

Most notable is the Marysville Getchell High School, a $58 million facility about 35 miles north of Seattle.

The Marysville School District is embracing the small learning group model at its new high school by grouping its 1,600 students into four smaller disciplines in four separate buildings and a shared cafeteria and commons area.

Woodrow Wilson High School, designed by NAC/Architecture, won in international design award. (Photo courtesy of Ben Benschneider)

The four centers are the Academy of Construction and Engineering, Bio-Med Academy, International School of Communications, and School for the Entrepreneur. The students in each of the schools learn traditional subjects, with lessons slanted toward that particular primary focus. In the school of construction and engineering, for example, students might learn algebra basics by figuring out the proper slope of a roof or how long it will take a concrete truck to get to a job site.

Absher Construction Co., Puyallup, Wash., is the GC/CM on the project, which is 45% complete. Close to 100 craftspeople are on the site daily installing the exterior siding and roofs.

DLR Group is the architect, and it has already won awards for design. “We have been as far away as London giving lectures on the project,” says Todd Ferking, project architect.

Learning in each building is enhanced by flexible open spaces that can be used for group learning or broken into small areas. Ferking placed the buildings on the site to take advantage of as much light as possible, with large curtain walls that also take advantage of the views of Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains and Mount Baker.

Woodrow Wilson High School, Tacoma

Marysville Getchell High School takes advantage of some second-growth trees and a small wetland for on-site learning tool. (Image courtesy of DLR Group)

Woodrow Wilson High School, Phase I, in Tacoma, Wash., has won an International Design Award in Architecture, taking Third Place in the Institutional Design category. There were over 1,000 entries from 52 countries throughout the world. The Wilson High School project was designed by NAC|Architecture. In this comprehensive replacement and modernization project, a new three-story building replaced four existing buildings and eight portables, helping consolidate the campus. The site area of the demolished buildings was redeveloped to provide landscaped areas, plazas and parking. The new building houses 25 general classrooms, nine science classrooms, six computer labs, a therapeutic learning center, a library, and administration and guidance centers.

To create a high-performance facility, the design team incorporated sustainable features via a fully integrated system that involves building siting, layout, envelope and materials; and mechanical, electrical and control systems. The new building is oriented along an east-west axis to maximize daylighting potential. Exterior sunshades and louvers on the south façade provide high-quality daylighting, while reducing solar heat gain to the interior. Photo-sensitive control of the indirect/direct classroom lighting further reduces heat loads, while directly cutting electricity consumption.

One- and two-story light shafts bring daylight to the rear of the classrooms and conduct warm return air to the rooftop mechanical penthouse via fan-assisted natural convection. A displacement ventilation system – the first installed in a Washington high school – provides both efficient air distribution and 100% filtered outside air to the building, minimizing energy usage while maximizing indoor air quality.

Panther Lake Elementary

The buildings contain as much natural lighting as possible, and high efficiency windows and an HVAC system that helps save energy costs for the district. (Photo courtesy of DLR Group)

The Panther Lake site in Federal Way is being transformed by Steilacoom’s BNCC. The 44,000 sq ft building will open September 2. Wiring is being pulled, and mechanical systems are being finished.

Two high-efficiency boilers will heat water that will then be circulated through pipes in the floor, keeping everyone warm from the bottom up.

The school will not be carpeted, a requirement of the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, which encourages schools to create a healthy environment both inside and out. Each classroom will have four six-by-six foot carpet squares to use in the room as the teacher chooses.