Firm: NAC Architecture

Project Name: Wing Luke Elementary School

Project Statement: A TRULY INCLUSIVE PUBLIC SCHOOL

SUPPORTING VARIOUS LEARNING AND TEACHING STYLES
ENGAGING ALL STUDENTS WITH ADAPTABLE AND FLEXIBLE OPTIONS
REACHING VOICES OFTEN FORGOTTEN

For One and All. Design for equity resonates on individual and community levels for this new elementary school. The exceptionally diverse student population, speaking 17 different languages, presented educational design challenges as well as intriguing opportunities. At the heart of a multicultural neighborhood, the design creates a spatially communal environment empowering families united by their shared experience.

Reaching Students and Families Where They Are. This phrase resounds as the design theme for a learning environment that helps teachers connect with their students according to individual needs. The design and planning process also embraced school parents and families with innovative and targeted outreach to gain their input directly and enhance the community’s trust that the new school truly is for them.

Spatial Template for Education Equity. Inclusive teaching and learning permeate the school’s educational vision to reach all students “where they are.” Classrooms are arranged in clusters around an open, flexible learning commons and an enclosed small group collaboration space. This allows teachers to customize their learning environments to meet a variety of student needs, from project-based group work to one-on-one instruction. Additional informal collaboration spaces are distributed throughout the building in the hallway, under the stairs, and in alcoves. These areas provide destinations for the school’s Dragon Block, a period where students leave their classrooms and gather in smaller groups for personalized instruction, regardless of age.

Shared Sense of Place and Identity. For some families, walking through the school’s front doors and interacting with the school community will be their first encounter with American civic life. Upon arriving, visitors are taken from an entry plaza through the main lobby and then to the central courtyard at the heart of the campus. This path emphasizes interconnection, transparency, and belonging. Multicultural wayfinding and graphics promote inclusivity and further strengthen a shared sense of pride, place, and identity.

New District Model for Excellence. Located in an academically underserved part of Seattle, teachers in the previous school had dedicated themselves to overcoming drawbacks. The new environment sets the stage for learning equity and accelerates their success. For an inclusive multi-cultural school, the design expresses an extraordinary vision for public education that ensures every child, teacher, and family knows they are welcome, valued, safe, and served.

Understanding the psychology and richness of the school’s exceptionally diverse student population imbued the idea of “wellness” with deeper meaning. Providing a welcoming environment for many recent immigrants required sensitivity and thoughtfulness about the individualized needs that are more frequent in this school. These students must tackle the educational curriculum while also taking great leaps to learn English and adjust to a new culture, so informal spaces take on additional relevance. Offering choices about whether to remain quiet and reflective or reach out and interact fosters a sense of safety and empowerment.

Large scale environmental graphics emphasize inclusion in the form of educational opportunities. Abstracted mountains and trees in a wall mural honor the school’s Pacific Northwest setting, while including ten hidden dragons (the school mascot) to engage students in an educational opportunity. Another wall mural features a Dymaxion world map that does not center European nations, while also connecting flora and fauna around the globe with students’ widely diverse backgrounds.

Unlike many urban schools, the school’s park-like experience engages nature from near and far and celebrates the site’s Pacific Northwest context with expansive views that fill spaces with daylight. 75% of classroom square footage achieves a spatial daylight autonomy of 300 lux during 50% of operational hours. Emphasizing user control and indoor air quality, operable windows promote fresh air and low emitting materials were selected. Conserving resources, glue-laminated beams were salvaged from the existing building and reused for finish carpentry, trim, and benches.

Sarah Finis
Interior Designer
Kevin Flanagan
Principal in Charge
Boris Srdar
Lead Designer
Brian Love
Project Manager
David Shaffer
Project Architect
Liz Katz
Project Architect
Kristen Petersen-Motan
Interior Designer
Lauren Jane Peterson
Environmental Graphics
Garrett Nelli - Designer
Lisa Glenn - Designer
Michelle Hook - Designer

Mechanical and Electrical Engineer | Hargis Engineers | | 

Structural Engineer | Coughlin Porter Lundeen | | 

Landscape Architect | Osborn Consulting Incorporated | | 

Construction Management | CBRE/Heery | | 

Contractor | Jody Miller Construction | | 

Electrical Contractor | TFWB Engineers | |