Cultural Connection
The Paschal Sherman Indian School in north central Washington State marks the first time the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has ever undertaken a design-build education project. By using the Design Build Institute of America’s construction approach, tribal members were able to open the doors to their $16.6 million school after only 18 months of construction.
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PROJECT DATA Paschal Sherman Indian School Construction Budget (Hard cost): $16.6 million |
The new school, located near Lake Omak, culminates more than 30 years of planning by the school board and confederated tribes that make up the Colville Reservation. Currently, the 70,000-square-foot facility, sited on 37 acres, is serving students in grades K-9, but will eventually expand to serve students up through 12th grade. It consists of an educational building, a 100-student dormitory, a fire/bus building and a maintenance building. Approximately 10,000 square feet of interior space was left unfinished to accommodate future growth.
The main school building houses classrooms, library, computer, craft, shop, music, dining, commons and gymnasium space all under one roof. Two ball fields (baseball and softball), a football/soccer field and an adjacent eight-lane running track make up most of the exterior space near the school.
In the dormitory, students live in quarters of two to three students per room. Each room is equipped with a toilet and sink, and provides an individual bed, dresser and closet space. The building is wired for computer access.
Paschal Sherman opened in May, only one month before the end of the school year. But as Bill Grubich, vice president at KJM & Associates, acting as the owner’s representative, explains, it was important to the tribe to open it as soon as possible, so they chose to open it even though it was so close to summer break.
Home
The original Paschal Sherman Indian School had been established more than a century ago. However, a fire destroyed its permanent buildings, leaving the school with only trailers for classrooms.
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| The use of the tree trunks ties in the natural elements from the surrounding valley in north central Washington. The trunks were locally harvested and encapsulate steel columns. |
"Because this is a Native American facility, part of the challenge in the design was to address what is important from a cultural perspective to each of the 12 tribes that comprise the Colville Federation," says Grubich. "The exterior of the building was designed and constructed to try to put native culture into the facility. Part of the challenge here was to attract native kids to the facility by making it feel like home."
Throughout the facility are animal themes and motifs that are significant to tribal members.
In the main entryway to the school building, known as the cultural center, is the salmon sculpture/solar clock. Suspended from the ceiling and nearly 43-feet high, the sculpture casts salmon shadows on the wall that correspond to the time of day. However, at one point each morning, the shadow cast is of a coyote, not a salmon. The cut-out "V" in the roof structure framing the entryway was specifically designed to allow the sun to enter and cast shadows accordingly. The windows are south facing.
When the sun projects through the "V" in the canopy, light projects onto the salmon. "The whole purpose for that split is to control the sunlight coming into that area," says Grubich. "And by controlling that sunlight, you are projecting it onto that salmon sculpture, which is projecting it onto a backdrop, which tells you exactly the month that it is, and what is pointing to that month is this coyote shadow."
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| The terrazzo flooring in the cultural center serves as a map showing the ancestral relations of the 12 bands that comprise the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The total enrollment of the tribe is estimated at 8,700 people, inhabiting an area of 1.4 million acres. |
On the floor beneath the solar clock, in terrazzo, is the ancestral map of the 12 tribes of the Colville Reservation. The map shows how each of the tribes followed the Columbia River to the reservation’s current location in Okanogan and Ferry counties.
The carpeting has a coyote track motif. One hallway is lined with a wall mural of Kettle Falls, a famous cascade that ceased to exist after completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in the 1930s. The mural is one of several visual design elements that each depict one of the original fishing/gathering places for the tribes.
Steven Walther, AIA, principal in charge for ALSC Architects, the design firm, explains how the building is organized also recognizes the tribes’ culture. "As they look at the circle of life, they begin with life on the east and greet the sun on the east. And so entrances to the building are facing east, or northeast or southeast," says Walther. "On the east side of the building are the younger children. As they go up in age, you move from east to south to west to north. So classes are organized in that fashion in the school itself. The older kids are on the west side."
The use of tree trunks within the school brings the natural element inside. "The trunks were supplied by the tribes," says Clancy Welsh, project manager at Garco Construction, the firm that acted as the design-build contractor. "The design intent was to create a natural looking facility that fit into the surroundings." The trees are put on in two halves, and the black ring secures the tree to the steel column.
Energy
Also important to tribal members was sustainability and maintenance.
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| The use of tree trunks marking the entryway is carried over from the school building to the 100-student dormitory. The facility can house 50 male and 50 female students. |
The use of daylighting is extensive. Every classroom has daylight coming in from two directions – the ceiling and the exterior wall. "On a typical day you don’t even have to turn the lights on in the building," says Grubich. "Of all the buildings we have done in the state of Washington, I would say this is the most creative from a daylighting perspective." When artificial lighting is needed, the school’s systems are energy-efficient, with rooms set up on timers and employing motion sensors to gauge occupancy and respond accordingly.
"Whether the classroom is upstairs or on the lower level, we still were able to bring natural light in," says Walther. "We kept the natural lighting within each classroom balanced. And that is a real key in doing natural daylighting; you want to keep an even level of light in the room. You don’t want to have a bright side and a dark side."
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| The salmon sculpture suspended from the ceiling, which stretches up the two-story space known as the cultural center, is actually a solar clock. Every day at the exact same time, sunlight on the sculpture casts a coyote shadow on the wall – in Native American culture the coyote is considered a very powerful totem. |
Another aspect of sustainability is how the dorm and school work in concert to share energy. They do this through a mechanical system, a water source heat pump that conserves and reuses energy. Walther explains that, "within the building itself, the south-facing side can help balance the needs of the north-facing side and vice versa."
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PRODUCT DATA Brick/Masonry: Mutual Materials |
The other way the dorm and school work together is they are on different use cycles. "When school is finished for the day, the heat in the pipe can be reused again that evening and the next morning in the dormitory," says Walther. "Heat that is given off by people and lights, which is generally just exhausted in a lot of buildings, is actually captured and reused again."
One of the primary goals of the building committee was to have a facility that followed the sustainable design principles that are in LEED. The school could have received LEED silver certification from the USGBC, however the tribes opted not to register the project because of the associated costs.
The design-build team tried to recycle as many materials as possible. On the site itself they worked to restore a lot of the natural dry land seed, so there would not be an overabundance of irrigation. Native plants were incorporated into the landscape, again relating to tribal culture. At one point the tribes were interested in having a green roof but changed their mind on that issue because of concerns with maintenance.
"They are looking at is a 50-year life span on the exterior of the building," says Walther. "[In choosing cedar siding] they wanted it to be pretty much maintenance free for 50 years. The cedar siding gives good durability." Walther emphasizes that cedar could weather naturally and not require a great deal of maintenance.
All in all, it seems the school design has accomplished its goals. It touches on themes that are important in Native American culture and it is built to stand the test of time. It has forged a connection with the students, as well.
"And watching, those little kids come into that school for the first time," recalls Grubich, "they kind of looked at you and said, ‘It’s about time!’"