Cascades Academy of Central Oregon

Project Details

Project Description

Cascades Academy of Central Oregon K-12 School

Hennebery Eddy has been working closely with Cascades Academy of Central Oregon on programming, master planning, fundraising, and design for their new k-12 campus. Located outside the city of Bend, near Tumalo State Park, the school’s 21 acre wooded site offers special opportunities for the creation of an environmentally sensitive learning environment.

Though a series of collaborative workshops, site planning and programming goals were established. Working with the school community and project team members, including CS Construction, D’Agostino Parker, Walker Structural Engineering, Interface Engineering, and Mayer Reed, we designed a campus that respects the natural setting of the land, is sensitive to the surrounding environment and neighboring community, and provides inspiration for students and teachers alike.

The campus is a compelling physical space that inspires learning – one in which the outside and inside learning environments are seamlessly connected. The dramatic natural features of the property provide beautiful ‘outdoor classrooms’ ideal for experiential learning programs. The site’s dramatic rock lined ravine is treated with reverence, with no built elements being proposed within it and the school itself is set back from its edge so as to not dominate it.

Using simple vernacular building forms, large clearstory windows are located along interior circulation paths to provide ample natural light. The plans of the classroom wings are slightly skewed to provide extra circulation space at pinch points for younger students and to create a commons area for older students. The south facing roofs of the classroom wings are planned to be ready for photovoltaic arrays. Cascades Academy will occupy their new campus in the fall of 2013.