May 28, 2025

Construction underway at Tacoma's $34M Lowell Elementary rebuild

Image from Tacoma Public Schools [enlarge]

New playgrounds and playfields are planned for the North End school.

Crews with Tacoma Public School contractor Korsmo Construction have begun grading the land, building a retaining wall, laying the foundation and preparing for the footing for the new 50,000-square-foot Lowell Elementary School.

The replacement $34 million school was designed by Tacoma's BCRA and will house up to 550 K-5th grade students when it opens next fall at 810 Mr. Dahl Drive. The old Lowell school, built in 1949, and with an occupancy of only 349 students, was demolished in February.

Work at Lowell also includes new playgrounds and playfields, improvements to sidewalks, roads, and drainage systems, and updated parking. Lowell's community is currently in session at the district's West End swing site at 2301 N. Mildred.

Lowell is one of eight school replacements or historic renovations funded by a $535 million school construction bond passed by Tacoma voters in 2020. Five of those schools are already open, and the $46.7 million modernization of Oakland High School by TCF Architecture and BNBuilders is well underway, with the school expected to open this fall.

Like Lowell, the Maritime/253 Skills Center at the Port of Tacoma is expected to open in the fall of 2026. Crews with contractor BNBuilders have officially completed the foundation for the center, with work underway on the center's concrete floor slab and stud wall panel assembly. The center was designed by TCF Architecture.

Whittier Elementary is slated to be the last arrival of the 2020 bond projects, expected to open in the fall of 2027. Apex Engineering was scheduled to begin site preparation work at Whittier last week, kicking off that school's rebuild by the Cornerstone-McGranahan PBK design-build team.

With its 2020 bond work complete or underway, the district is readying to go out for bid for the 11 school replacement and renovation projects funded by the new $650 million bond measure passed there last February.