Project profile: Music and Science Building

The Music and Science Building is the latest addition to the Hood River Middle School campus in Hood River, Oregon. It provides a new facility to serve the school’s remarkable and unique Outdoor Classroom Project based on the principles of Permaculture. Situated directly adjacent to the historic main school building on the campus, the design of the Music/Science building had two primary objectives: create a public building that truly fuses sustainable design with sustainability curriculum, and carefully integrate the facility into the existing National Historic Landmark site. The building is home to a new music room, practice rooms, teacher offices, a science lab, and a greenhouse.

The interface between the building and its environmental and cultural landscape is particularly important for the curriculum at Hood River Middle School. The new music room serves not only music classes, but is available to many school and community arts groups. The greenhouse serves as a laboratory where students grow plants using water from a ‘living machine’ that recycles wastewater for irrigation.
(2012 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects recipient)