Completion Date: July 2011
Owner: Seattle Public Schools
Program: A two-story, 218,500-square-foot public high school with classrooms, a student activity center, a multipurpose forum for presentations and lectures, a library, TV and radio studios, a gymnasium, and offices. Mahlum modernized 204,000 square feet of the school's existing precast and cast-in-place concrete structure from the early 1960s, and expanded the program with an additional 14,500 square feet. New spaces include art classrooms, a fitness center, and an extension of an existing wing that now houses the library. Mahlum also designed the school's performing arts center, which was completed in 2005. After school hours, many of the common areas (including the library and performing arts center) are open to the community for meetings and events.
Design Concept and Solution: When Mahlum began work on Nathan Hale, the school was essentially a closed concrete box, full of long, windowless corridors that isolated students in mazelike paths and concealed the layout of the program. The architects decided to orient the building around the students by carving out a central social space that also clarifies circulation. Mahlum removed a concrete stair in a main corridor to create a clear east-west view through the building. They organized the student commons around two existing interior courtyards—one north of the main corridor, one south—that had previously been cut off from view. The architects removed concrete infill panels from the courtyard-facing walls, leaving the structural columns, and fitted the openings with windows. Along the northern courtyard, the architects added the second commons by relocating some classrooms and removing the floor slab to create a double-height space. On the second floor, they gutted everything in order to carve out new collaborative spaces for group work: the classrooms receded by about ten feet, leaving room in the corridors for new glass conference rooms and computer stations. For the interior finishes, Mahlum's strategy was to expose the concrete structure—removing dropped ceilings, for instance—and paint the concrete white. To advertise the new library's off-hours role as a community center, the architects situated the library at the eastern, public edge of the site. Its curtain wall and corrugated metal wall panels echo the facade of the performing arts center at the school's western edge. Together, the two buildings bookend the original school, serving as glazed beacons for passersby.
Location:
10750 30th Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98125
Total construction cost: $62.5 million
Architect:
Mahlum
71 Columbia, Floor 4
Seattle, Washington 98104
Tel: 206.441.4151
Fax: 206.441.4078
Video
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