The Redmond Junior High School project included a significant stakeholder involvement process. Numerous students, school boosters, staff, faculty, community members and City of Redmond staff contributed to a two-day workshop that included a discussion of the project’s key issues, design ideas and project opportunities.  This process of collaboration brought a full array of the public’s interest and ideas to the process.

A smaller task force of the larger group continued on through the duration of the project design; providing continuity and valuable input.  Ultimately many of these ideas informed the educational specification and brought about many design ideas, one that became a key component of the school concept… an interior plaza. One of our keys to facilitating a stakeholder process is to assure that complex and sophisticated issues are presented in a way that allows both experts and laypeople to understand and process the information that supports effective dialogue and input. It is important to create an atmosphere that encourages, understands and empathizes with the needs and wants of the stakeholders and project team. Translating freeform and brainstormed thoughts into an organized and prioritized format provides the framework for implementing the most salient ideas. We have found the power of the collective to be highly beneficial and invigorating.

Redmond Junior High became a CEFPI MacConnell Award finalist for the thoughtful and thorough consideration of educational goals, as well as the high degree of collaboration and community process. As you can see in some of the imagery, numerous methods were used to communicate ideas and thoughts to a diverse group including project issue association, drawings, models and even a celebratory cake emulating the building form… we try our best to have fun! In the end, the process and product were highly successful in large part due to the incredible collaboration of the project stakeholders.