Image courtesy of Ron Lloyd Associates The new Mount Rainier High School will have several sustainability features, including lots of day lighting.

Project description: Noise disruption is a familiar problem for any secondary school teacher, but for the previous educators at Mount Rainier High School, it wasn’t superfluous classroom chatter that made learning difficult for students: it was the shrieking wail of aircraft taking off from Sea-Tac Airport. The original Mount Rainier High School was built in 1957 and after almost a half century of use, it required extensive maintenance, updated and improved educational facilities and, of course, relief from 747 noise. To facilitate a better learning environment, Highline School District decided to demolish the old facility and build a more usable and acoustically friendly school building. Because Mount Rainier High School is going to be a large secondary school with 1,500 students, the building was designed with the idea of housing several “schools within a school” in order to provide a personalized learning environment. To achieve this, the 205,000-square-foot building will have two L-shaped classroom wings, with each two-story wing housing two independent learning communities. Each learning community will be comprised of eight general classrooms, two science classrooms/labs, a resource classroom, a technology lab and staff team rooms and offices. New common use facilities, such as the gymnasium and other physical education areas are being constructed, as well as a new arts and technology area, which will include a wood technology shop, a material science lab, a CAD lab, three art classrooms and rehearsal space for the band and choir. The new school will take advantage of its natural surroundings with a commons area that has a view of Mt. Rainier. The commons will act as a cafeteria, a space for public meetings and as an informal student gathering place. The building will have several sustainability features: lots of day lighting; green building materials; occupancy controlled lighting and HVAC; water conservation; energy-efficient windows; and a mechanical system designed to pre-filter air. Address: 22450 19th Ave. S., Des Moines Cost: $47.96 million (award amount) Type of contract: Hard bid Start of construction: July 2005 Expected completion date: Fall 2007 Contractor: Lydig Construction, 11001 E. Montgomery, Spokane, WA 99206, (509) 534-0451 Architect: BLRB Architects, Tacoma Financial Center, 1145 Broadway Plaza, Suite 1200, Tacoma, WA 98402, (253) 627-5599 Owner: Highline School District No. 401 Project participants: 3 Kings Environmental — A-1 Industries — Adams Consulting & Estimating — Addison — Advanced Equipment — AHBL Civil & Structural Engineers — Aluminum Bronze — Anderson — Arcadia — Audi Acoustics — Balco — Bosnick Roofing — BP Floorcovering — Bruce Dees & Associates — Carl Stahl — Cascade Sign — CCI Construction — Ceccanti — Central Steel — Chandler Wilson Design — Crawford Roll-Lite — Curry — DeaMor Associates — Direct Buying Services — Emerald City Weatherproofers Emerald Fire — Engineered Products — EWR — Fuller & d’Albert — Harris & Hart — Highsmith — Insul Pro — Integrated Door — Interstate Sheet Metal — Iris Window Coverings — J&S Masonry — Kone — LCI — Lemons Millwork — Long Painting — Master Precaster — Miles Sand & Gravel — Nor-Pac Seating — Northwest Asphalt — Northwest Handling Systems — Nuprecon — P.B.S. Engineering & Environmental — PacificWindow Systems — Paxton — PBS Supply — PCSA Structural Solutions — Plumbing Today — Porter Athletic Equipment — Precision Ladders — R&H — Rubenstein Contract Carpet — SeaWest Construction — Sitelines — Specialized Landscaping — Stagecraft Industries — Steel Systems — Sterling Elevator — The Greenbush Group — Thomas V. Rengstorf Associates — Tres West Engineers — Vanderlip — Vertecs — VWR — Washington Architectural Hardware Copyright ©2006 Seattle Daily Journal and DJC.COM. Comments? Questions? Contact us.