Valley View Middle School

The design team led a rigorous community engagement process. It facilitated focus groups of community members, administrators, teachers and students and used the data gathered to define guidelines and spaces for the project, including the design of unique extended-learning areas throughout the campus.
To meet the superintendent’s challenge of achieving net-zero energy use, Dykeman’s first strategy was to reduce demand. The building systems were modeled to achieve 22EUI (kbtu/sf/year) without any photovoltaic offset, which is 1/3 of the average Washington State middle school and less than 50 percent of the required code.
All sustainable items at Valley View are designed to be teaching tools that provide opportunities for ongoing user engagement. Water collection and energy use are tracked and monitored live on smart boards and public interactive kiosks via in-classroom software to encourage educational competition among classroom communities.
In addition to the three-story commons, two-sided stage, student-focused gathering areas, and numerous outdoor learning areas, 12,000 square feet were dedicated to providing flexibility in educational models.

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