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Discovery High School
Submitting Company: DLR Group

Location: Camas, Washington
Cost: $48.9 million
Start Date: June 2017
Completion Date: January 2019
Owner/Developer: Camas School District
Architect: DLR Group
Engineer: DLR Group
Additional Engineering Firms: Reyes Engineering, OTAK
General Contractor: Robinson Construction
Subcontractors: ADK Electrical, BRC Acoustics, Halliday Associates, JRT Mechanical, Lundhal Ironworks, M&C Construction, McDonald & Wetle, Nutter Corp., Pioneer Sheet Metal, Rider Levett Bucknall, Robert Lloyd Sheetmetal, South Town Glass

Discovery High School is a new, project-based learning facility for the Camas School District. The 89,000-square-foot facility features flexible and adaptable learning spaces intended to provide an alternate education option for the school’s 600 students.

A research and development pod forms the suite of core learning spaces where 150 students spend the majority of their day. Another featured space is a Fab Lab, a crucial component for hands-on learning that includes digital controls, a fabrication area, computer lab, tools exchange and adjacent outdoor learning. The R&D Commons embodies the culture of the school community and provides a visual connector to major learning spaces.

Discovery High School is organized around cost-effective and energy-efficient systems. Its east-west orientation reduces sun exposure and minimizes heat gain within the building, while its form capitalizes on natural daylight with appropriately placed operable windows and skylights.

The project was built on undeveloped land adjacent to Odyssey Middle School following the passage of a $119 million bond. Camas School District first implemented project-based learning at Odyssey with a tenant improvement of a former office building, and Discovery High School is its first effort to bring project-based learning to the high school level.