Gray Middle School

1. 2009 Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture Gray Middle School Tacoma, Washington Middle School Project of Distinction/New Construction Mahlum

2. Gray Middle School

3. A dynamic forum for gathering. IMAGE Community Environment: The new Gray Middle School site and program are united within a sequence of layers – civic, school, and environment – that bring students, teachers and the community together to reinforce a shared identity and celebrate student achievement. At the facility’s heart, a two-story gallery provides a dynamic forum for gathering that encourages communication and collaboration.

4. A strong and welcoming civic identity. Community Environment (cont): Adjacent to Parks Department facilities, a future community center and Boys and Girls Club, this site is a community hub offering multiple venues for public use and providing opportunities to promote a sense of community both within the school and within the surrounding neighborhood. An entry plaza creates a public zone at the front of the school that invites community engagement and gathers students and visitors along the front of the building, presenting a strong and welcoming civic identity. From this space, visitors have direct access to the school’s major shared amenities including the gym, library, commons, administration, and athletic fields. This access to building and site resources encourage continuous use of the site while fostering a safe and community oriented learning environment.

5. Connections and communications. Learning Environment: The client’s primary objectives for the project were to promote a sense of community within the school. Inside, learning is seen and experienced through a double-height gallery that provides a forum for gathering and sharing – encouraging communication at all levels. From the gallery, views into the gym, science labs, and shared activity areas make learning visible, reinforcing connections and a sense of the entire school working toward a common goal.

6. Classroom clusters. Learning Environment (cont): Upper and lower level connections continue in the three classroom clusters physically open to the common gallery space. The clusters were developed to provide opportunities for an integrated curriculum. Distributed science rooms act as the hub of each grouping, and are closely linked with both interior and exterior activity areas. Shared learning spaces at the center of the classroom clusters connect to the gallery. In these spaces, small and large group activities support classroom teaching by offering areas for activities ranging from student break-out to multi-class presentations. Slightly offset from each other, these upper and lower level shared spaces are connected visually, again reinforcing school community and collaboration.

7. Environmental connections. Physical Environment The sustainable building and site support the school’s educational objectives with healthy environments and design features that integrate curriculum with everyday activities. Along the gallery, alternating views open to landscaped raingardens, outdoor learning settings and distant views of Mount Rainier. Environmental connections and green building features link students with the natural world and resource conservation, engaging them in the cultivation of tomorrow’s sustainable communities. The school teaches through design by expressing sustainable strategies in a way that encourages students, teachers, and staff to become knowledgeable stewards of the environment.

8. Healthy environments. Physical Environment (cont): The school benefits from a fully integrated, high performance design following principals of resource management and sustainability. Resource saving strategies include energy use reduction through the implementation of ground source heat pumps and displacement ventilation. Salvaged glulam beams from the deconstructed pre-existing school are incorporated into the new school structure. The site design incorporates outdoor learning areas to provide opportunities to connect education with the natural environment and innovative low-impact stormwater strategies within the building’s courtyards. Learning spaces have been designed to gain maximum benefit from natural daylighting. Non-toxic, low-impact finish materials are used throughout the school.

9. Lessons Learned. Planning Process: The design is the result of an interactive planning process of review and analysis, which explored how to design a facility that enhances the mission of the school today and into the future. The educational specification process included analysis of previous facilities built following a similar building program. Lessons learned informed adaptation of the school district’s program prototype to reflect the specific needs of Gray’s staff and students. A series of building tours and workshops with the advisory team -faculty, staff, administration, parents, students and district personnel - were an essential part of the process. The ed spec/schematic design process began in April 2005 and was completed in November 2005. The project documentation continued with regular meetings with the advisory team through construction documents which were completed in February 2007.

10. Project Goals. Planning Process (cont): The resulting five goals drove the design concept and guided the team during all phases of the work: :: To create a highly collaborative environment; open visual access between learning spaces and common spaces to encourage communication :: To create a strong sense of school community; reinforcing positive relationships with students, staff and community :: To enhance the connection to the greater public; the school to serve as a neighborhood hub with shared facilities and adjacent community resources :: To provide a safe learning environment; well-defined boundaries and edges, buffering of the school community and an open environment to allow for passive supervision :: To teach environmental stewardship by example; high performance building strategies openly expressed to encourage student interaction

11. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2009 Project Data

12. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2009 Project Details