4902 S. Alaska St., Tacoma, WA 98408
Giaudrone Middle School opened its doors for the first time in September 2003. The school serves a community of more than 600 students and staff, with a majority of the student population living within a two-mile radius. This makes Giaudrone a center for the surrounding neighborhood.
The primary goal of Giaudrone’s design and construction was to create a higher density facility on a restricted site between an urban residential neighborhood and a busy interstate highway. In doing that, the architects created a first-rate facility on the site of the old Seward Elementary School.
Optimizing natural daylight was identified as a major goal during the school’s construction. Not only was this to increase the academic performance of the students, but also to create better working environments, reduce the cost of energy consumption and provide better quality of light.
Another goal was to increase the density of the building to allow a larger student population without adding substantially to the impervious surfaces of the site. A new softball field was added beside the expanded track and football field.
During construction and demolition, recycling the old building materials was a priority. Nearly all the existing asphalt removed was ground up and re-used as a sub-grade material for new paved areas. All demolition and construction debris was collected and 80 percent was recycled.
Construction was completed in September 2003.