NAC Architecture successfully designed two new middle schools on distinctly different sites with nearly identical prototype floor plans at the request of Cheney Public Schools. The new Cheney Middle School is a replacement school strategically positioned to allow continued use of the old building during construction. The school also provides a new and exciting street presence appropriate to its suburban site, which is sandwiched between a retail zone and a rapidly developing residential neighborhood. In contrast, the new Westwood Middle School is co-located with the existing Windsor Elementary on its 40-acre, rural, ponderosa pine-wooded site surrounded by small farms.
The resulting design is a blend of pitched roof lines that relate to the adjacent residential and farm contexts with a contemporary palette of exposed steel structure, metal panel and ground-face concrete block masonry. The color palette differs between the two buildings so that each has a unique visual identity and appropriate relationship to its context. The total building area for each school is 110,705 square feet. Each includes 21 mainstream classrooms; three project rooms with adjacent common areas; three science classrooms; band and choral suites; two resource rooms with a separate, self-contained suite and associated support spaces; a library/media center; two separate gymnasiums with adjacent locker facilities and wrestling room; and various educational and building support facilities.
