The New North Eugene High School

North Eugene High School site tour - February 23, 2022 (all photos by me)

Like other member-driven industry organizations, the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute is shaking off the enervating effects of social distancing measures that helped keep the COVID-19 pandemic in check. Following two years of relative torpor, the chapter’s board of directors has resurrected a schedule of regular chapter meetings. I attended the most recent event, an informative site tour of the new North Eugene High School, now under construction.

Local voters approved the November 2018 bond measure, which provided funding for capital improvements at every District 4J school, in addition to construction of replacements for North Eugene High School, Edison Elementary School, and Camas Ridge Elementary School. The new high school building will be the first in the Eugene-Springfield area in more than 50 years. As such, it promises to significantly raise the bar for modern teaching, safety and security, efficiency and sustainability, and career technical education at the secondary level.

North Eugene High School rendering by Rowell Brokaw Architects & Opsis Architecture - View from the northeast 

The design team for the new North Eugene High School is Rowell Brokaw Architects with Opsis Architecture (the two firms previously collaborated on the design of the Arts & Technology Academy at Jefferson Middle School). The project’s construction manager/general contractor is Lease Crutcher Lewis. LCL senior project manager and current WVC-CSI chapter president Tanner Perrine led the tour. Rowell Brokaw principal Mark Young, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, and project architect Patrick Hannah, AIA were also on hand to offer insights into the design process.
 
Construction began in fall 2020 following demolition of the old Silver Lea Elementary School. As of Wednesday’s tour, the project is halfway through construction, with completion scheduled to occur in April of 2023. Upon opening its doors, the new school will not only replace the existing North Eugene High School (which District 4J will retain and repurpose for other uses) but also serve as a shelter after a natural disaster, with key areas built to meet higher seismic and resiliency standards.
 
Rowell Brokaw and Opsis organized the two-story building around a central courtyard. Unlike its sprawling, single-story predecessor, the new North Eugene High School compactly arrays its 216,000 square feet of program area in clear fashion, promising a strong sense of community for up to 1,200 students, faculty, and staff. An interior circulation loop will serve as a continuous “main street” for the school, with all major spaces—52 classrooms, 400-seat theater, main and auxiliary gyms, Career Technology Education shops, library/media center, and Commons—directly accessed from and connected to one another by the loop. The library/media center will further serve as a welcoming “lantern”

Rendering of the Commons (Rowell Brokaw Architects w/Opsis Architecture)

 
As the Rowell Brokaw website description for the project states, a key element of the design is the entry sequence. The main entrance is set back into the site so that students and visitors will approach it along a landscaped, tree-lined plaza. A glass curtain wall on the façade will offer views into the building and the courtyard beyond. The spacious two-story Commons, which serves as the hub of the school, will welcome students and visitors upon entry. The Commons will directly connect to classrooms, the library, career counseling, administration offices, and the courtyard while serving as the primary area for dining and gatherings associated with after-school athletics and performing arts events.  
 

Inside the future NEHS Theater.

Being relatively early in the construction schedule, it wasn’t possible yet to fully appreciate the character and form of all the interior spaces. Regardless, the scale of the project was apparent, as was the clarity of its fundamental parti.

Exterior view featuring the brick veneer.

Some of the exterior cladding is already in place. The dark gray, variegated brick veneer is particularly striking, delivering a welcome dose of visual heft and texture to the façades it is applied to. Contrasting metal wall panels and multi-colored cladding will help distinguish the different volumes and the functions they house.
 
I was curious about what impact the high levels of recent cost escalation have had on the project. Mark Young reported that, thankfully, Lease Crutcher Lewis procured the most inflation-sensitive building materials and systems for the new North Eugene High School before the past year's precipitous increase in their costs. For its part, the prudent simplicity and compactness of the design has paid dividends, contributing to the scheme’s overall economy. The upshot is the project will be achieved comfortably within District 4J’s overall project budget of $135 million.  
 
The Willamette Valley Chapter is proposing to conduct an additional tour of the new North Eugene High School, perhaps in a year’s time, when the project is nearing completion. I’ll look forward to that opportunity to see the school again and further gauge its merits as a 21^st century educational facility and as a work of architecture.