Mass Timber Tour of Alki Elementary School

The 79,000 SF new construction at Alki Elementary School is designed to create an environment that communicates care, support, and belonging in ways students can easily recognize – beginning with the design of a three-story classroom building that prioritizes connection to Park Boulevard and the surrounding community.

Nearly all cultures around the world have buildings made of wood – it is one of the most inclusive construction materials available. As such, the decision to use mass timber at Alki is a purposeful strategy to build social, educational, and environmental equity. Mass timber also creates a strong connection to place while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting biophilia and a sense of welcoming, and offers constructibility advantages.

Learning communities are clustered together into neighborhoods and distributed throughout the three floors of the building. The design prioritizes classroom location to orient towards the north and south for daylight and leverages views to the park to the north. Learning communities provide access to small group rooms and open learning commons’ to invite collaboration and intervention work. These shared spaces become an important integral part of the framework to support diverse ways of learning.

At just 1.4 acres, Alki occupies the smallest site in Seattle Public Schools. Beneath the building, 60 geothermal wells power a water-to-water heat pump system that provides both heating and cooling, achieving a pEUI of ~13 kBTU/sf. Every aspect of the school is designed for efficiency and optimization.