The new Capital High School (CHS) Performing Arts Center is the centerpiece of a comprehensive campus upgrade that included updating exterior surfaces to improve thermal performance, weather protection, and aesthetics, replacing mechanical systems, and re-roofing significant portions of the existing building.

The Performing Arts Center is a free-standing building allowing the community to access the facility independently of the main school.  The new Performing Arts Center is positioned in the northwest quadrant of the site to maximize accessibility and improve campus organization.  As both a school facility and community amenity, the placement of the building is convenient for both visitors arriving from off-campus and student musicians and performers from the main building.  Spaces are designed to facilitate the teaching of a variety of production skills, from operating lighting and audio controls to stagecraft and costuming.

Capital High School has experienced numerous alterations and additions throughout the years—portions of the school date to the original construction in the 1970s.  The envelope upgrades include covering original marblecrete panels with a variety of contemporary, highly durable, and low-maintenance metal panels.  The new cladding offers improved weather protection and enhanced energy performance for windows and air barrier transitions.  A palette of neutral materials augmented with bolder color focal points increases campus cohesiveness and improves the facility’s overall appearance, way-finding, and school identity.

The new STEAM Center of Innovation was included in the District’s capital facilities bond which was approved by voters in February of 2018. It was intended to replace inadequate facilities in the existing high school for art and science and provide a permanent home for programs that are currently housed in the District Administration building and portables on the Fife High School campus. At the same time, it presented an opportunity to create a new learning environment at Fife High School, one that is designed to support contemporary approaches to teaching and learning.

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) will collocate a diversity of programs that have historically been independent departments in the same learning center to encourage cross-discipline collaboration and support the District’s four “C’s”—Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.

The new building will be approximately 31,000 SF and house 11 new teaching stations as well as a central mechanical plant that will eventually serve the entire campus.

McGranahan worked with the District and High school staff members to determine how their STEAM curriculum could be best supported with this new facility. Additionally, we worked on master planning elements of the site to determine the best building placement for future High School expansion and phased construction.

Stanwood High School was the capstone in a comprehensive redevelopment of the 62.2-acre campus. Included were a replacement high school, a replacement alternative high school, an addition and renovation of the District’s Maintenance and Technology Center, an expansion of the fieldhouse, renovation of the grandstand, and replacement of all the sports fields and parking.

The 241,000 SF, three-story building has a capacity for 1,600 students and 69 teaching stations. As the only high school in the District, the school includes facilities for the full breadth of a comprehensive high school, including general studies, science, fine and performing arts, music, athletics, and special education. The curriculum has a heavy focus on CTE programs with specialized spaces for a wide diversity of programs such as Veterinary Science, Horticulture, Culinary Arts, Cabinetry, Agricultural Mechanics, Photojournalism, Graphic Design, and Sports Medicine.

The new schools were constructed simultaneously on the same site as the existing schools in multiple phases of construction spanning three school years while the existing facilities remained in operation.

As the only high school in the District, the new Woodland High School serves a diverse curriculum in a contemporary educational setting. The school is organized around a central commons, which serves as the heart of the school. This dual-use space serves as the lunchroom and social gathering space during the day and contains a stage and retractable theater seating to allow it to convert to a performing arts venue in the evening.

The academic spaces are arranged to provide teachers and students access to a diversity of types of learning settings. Each of the two wings contains a two-story shared activity space that is surrounded by general classrooms, science rooms, and hands-on project spaces; art in one wing; and CTE in the other. Large roll-up garage doors in the shared activity spaces provide direct access to an outdoor courtyard between the two wings.

Social “eddies” exist throughout the building to allow students to step out of the flow and engage in smaller groups. Teaching and learning are on display throughout the facility with every classroom having visual transparency to shared spaces, other classrooms, and to the outdoors.

Timberline High School was comprised of 119,000 SF of new construction and 79,000 SF of modernization. It was constructed in three phases, over 2 ½ school years, while the school remained in operation.

Project goals included organizing the academic spaces by department, with consideration to the interactions and adjacencies between departments. The building was also organized around the Student Union which includes the Commons, Library, Administration, Student Services, and Food Service. This area is the academic and social heart of the school as well as a great asset to the community.

The large wetlands on-site and a heavily wooded cemetery to the west create a setting of northwest beauty that is reflected in the site design and building materials. The result is a building that expresses a timeless, enduring character that is welcoming and fits prominently in the community.

The new Environmental Learning Center will be a public asset that supports greater understanding and appreciation of nature’s ecological systems and our relationship to them. The Center is located in Point Defiance Park, a 700-acre urban park surrounded on three sides by the waters of Puget Sound. Amenities in the park include the Zoo, gardens, beaches, trails and most notably, a stand of old growth forest.

The Environmental Learning Center is a partnership between Tacoma Public Schools and Metro Parks Tacoma to support education, sustainability and conservation. This joint-use facility is located on Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium grounds and features eight formal learning settings for SAMi and community use, communal space for collaborative and interpretive activities, planning/work space for SAMi and Zoo educators, coordination/work space for Zoo staff and volunteers, and a setting for a nature-oriented early learning experience.

SAMi, one of the building’s primary tenants, is a public high school within Tacoma Public Schools that partners closely with Metro Parks Tacoma and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Since its founding in 2009, SAMi has created a powerful community of learners that contributes to the public educational mission of Metro Parks and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Students and teachers engage with community partners through citizen scientist workshops, interpretive exhibits, and research with partners in the region while advancing the research and educational mission of the Park and Zoo.

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The new Lakewood High School is designed to foster a sense of individual identity for students within a larger community that they can contribute to by creating a sense of community at different scales—civic, academic, and intimate. From performances to sporting events and social gatherings, the high school is a centerpiece for the Lakewood community at large, with space to gather, celebrate, connect, and learn.

Academic proficiency is a core component of Lakewood High School’s contemporary education, but there is also a strong emphasis on the essential “soft skills” of problem-solving, collaboration, and meaningful contribution. The school is a place where students feel safe and supported, where they have cutting-edge technology at their fingertips anywhere in the school, and where they form lasting relationships and a sense of belonging to a larger learning community.

The design concept of Lakewood High School reflects contemporary values and is mindful of local heritage and its place in the geography. Bridging lakes and farmlands to the west and encroaching commercial properties to the east, the site is experienced by most people in their cars, passing by on the highway. Traversing the gentle surrounding hills, the experience of the high school site is one of horizontal motion.