Woodburn-based builder Triplett Wellman is looking for subcontractors to work on the expansion of Gilkey International Middle School in the Forest Park neighborhood – the first phase of an expected four.

Heavy work on the is scheduled to span the 2017-18 academic year.

Portland architecture firm Hacker drew the plans. The building is L-shaped, with classrooms on the straightaways and common areas located in the knuckle of the “L.”

Though the site is sloped and difficult to access, Hacker associate principal Stefee Knudsen said, it has advantages – notably great, unique views. The building faces Portland to one direction, and Forest Park greenery to the other.

“It’s a little bit of the urban and a little bit of the forest,” she said.

The location also allows enough natural light inside that the school doesn’t require electric lighting, except in restrooms. Also, plans do not call for any active cooling systems. Testing revealed such temperature control would be necessary only in a few spots in the building, and likely only a handful of days annually, Knudsen said.

The project is enrolled in the Energy Trust of Oregon‘s Path to Net Zero energy efficiency program.

The curriculum of the Gilkey school, along with the accompanying French American Lower School, is accredited by the French government. Four other languages are also taught there – English, German, Mandarin and Spanish.

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The French American International School is replacing long-standing temporary classrooms with a permanent, state-of-the art structure.

The new, 29,500-square-foot building will house students in sixth through eighth grades at the private school’s campus at 8500 N.W. Johnson St. The Gilkey International Middle School has approximately 200 students and 25 teachers at a given time.

“I think every school has its culture and what it is trying to express,” said Stefee Knudsen, senior associate and project director at Hacker. “The French American (International) School is unique in that it has grown to provide a level of excellence while staying scrappy, and that is what they want to retain.”

The school is an authorized International Baccalaureate World School for middle years. It has a special focus on language and, in addition to English, teaches French, German, Mandarin and Spanish.

“We are in the construction document phase now,” Knudsen said. “We want to be done with that by the end of April.”

Then work will begin on a challenging site with a deep slope. The L-shaped building will house 14 classrooms, two science rooms, collaboration spaces, a lunch hub and offices.

“The L shape is a direct response of the contour of the hill,” Knudsen said. “We want a design to work with landscape of the area around it and that is also cost conscious.”

The site slopes approximately 14 feet from one end of the building’s wide side to the other. Due to the slope, the building’s north-south section will be two stories and its east-west section will be three stories.

Outdoor project amenities will include an amphitheater, outdoor dining facilities and a new trailhead deck leading to existing trails.

The project team is pursuing Energy Trust of Oregon‘s “Path to Net Zero,” Knudsen said. Projects are given incentives to achieve carbon neutrality.

“The school has the long-term aspirational goal to be carbon neutral in the next 40 years,” she said.

Building plans still must go through the Portland permitting process and conditional use review. Planners are hoping construction will begin this summer and the facility will be open for students in fall 2018.

On the Boards is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects in Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ architecture and engineering reporter Kent Hohlfeld at 503-802-7224 or khohlfeld@djcOregon.com.

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