STUDENTS AT NORTHGATE ELEMENTARY

Cultural Diversity

Northgate Elementary acts as Seattle’s North-End Bilingual Orientation Center, where the school district sends recently immigrated children to transition into the American education system. Many of these children come as refugees from around the world to create the incredibly diverse student population at Northgate, with over 20 languages spoken. This range of ethnicity and perspective provides design opportunities to support cultural exchange and learning.

Compared to the district average, Northgate Elementary has over twice the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch. These students are considered to be from low income families. Many of these same students also participate in a monthly free grocery program called Food Lifeline in order to help supplement their families’ incomes. These challenges provide opportunities for integrating food production into design.

39%

Total: 259 students

American Indian

Asian

African American Latino

Caucasian

Total: 53,872 students source: www.foodlifeline.org

The four open spaces (Field Labs) identified within walking distance from Northgate Elementary form a system of loosely programmed outdoor classrooms demonstrating a diverse range of ecosystem services. Students can explore these spaces through scientific learning and play. Through the interaction with these places overtime, new affordances are discovered and students become accustomed to seasonal fluctuations. This intimate relationship with the local environment supports ecological literacy. In order to safely travel among these classrooms, key streets have been redesigned to prioritize pedestrian safety. Bioretention cells planted with pollinator-friendly plants buffer pedestrian and bike travel from car traffic.

FIELD LABS

NW MEDICAL CENTER

GARDEN –This proposed therapeutic garden includes a variety of plants for pollinators.

HALLER LAKE– This limnologic system supports a complex food web and opportunities to interact with water.

NORTHACRES PARK– includes mature native canopy and understory rare to urban spaces.

ASHWORTH WETLAND–teaches natural stormwater management methods and supports diverse plant and animal life.

Streets For Multiple Users

PLANT SELECTION PrivateProperty

Source: http://science.halleyhosting.com/nature/plants/ trees/deciduous/oleaster/fraxinus/latifolia.html

Source: http://montanaflora. blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

Lonicera involucrata

Source: http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+1109+0522

Cornus sericea Iris douglasiana

Source: http://nature.berkeley. edu/~oboyski67/macros/index. htm

Northgate Elementary Site Plan

Map Sources: Google Earth and WAGDA, https://wagda.lib.washington.edu/data/geography/wa_cities/seattle/index.html

Site Systems

Lighting

The lighting of the trees and entrances deters unwanted activity on school grounds at night. The glow-in-the-dark entrance mosaics add a wayfinding element that appears at other parks and open space part of the pollinator network.

Vegetation

Fruit bearing trees and shrubs line the perimeter of the space and populate the forest garden, acting as robust pollinator habitat. Agricultural beds provide more short-term engagement with food systems. Finally, the rain garden on the southern side manages stormwater runnoff on-site.

Hydrology

Stormwater on site is conveyed by three drains that outfall in a playful swale in which children can study and manipulate the flow of water as it moves toward the rain garden. Water also supports quiet play in the southern courtyard where students and teachers can enjoy the sounds of falling water.

Circulation

Two loop paths, one a community trail and one a playful path, facilitate circulation throughout the northern site for endless play opportunities. Main entrances at the most public parts of the site, NW and NE, invite the community to share the space outside of school hours.

Northgate Elementary

Together, these systems provide infrastructure to create a safe green space supporting handson learning and play through lighting, plantings, water management, and circulation.

Programming For Multiple Users

This diagram provides a feeling of how the holistic design of the space serves multiple stakeholders throughout a normal day. Students, community members, parents, and teachers may all take advantage of the robust programming for the site, while also feeling ownership of the space and creating an identity for the school.

Students

Students at Northgate can take advantage of the outdoor spaces both during and outside of school hours. The versatility of the spaces allows for learning, active play, and quiet play.

Community

Community members may tend the forest garden and harvest when available. Also the central meeting area provides a much needed space for community meetings. The existing parking lot acts a flexible space for events, like a farmers market.

Teachers

Teachers use the southern courtyard as a respite from the active classroom. When watching the children during recess, strategic points allow complete viewsheds of the entire school grounds for maximum safety.

Parents

Parents safely drop off their children in the existing parking lot or stay and help with the children’s gardening curriculum. When soccer games occur, parents use the slug berm as sloped seating while apple trees atop the berm provide shade.

Food Systems Design

PLAY, LEARNING, & COMMUNITY

The terraced garden space bridging the asphalt and upper grass area performs for both the community and the school in a mutually beneficial relationship. The upper terrace contains a forest garden tended by community members outside of school hours. While the community harvests food, students use the space for learning and the garden helps establish an identity and sense of continuity for the school. The lower three terraces are exclusively for student hands-on experimentation. These smaller beds can have a short turn-around, customized to each class. Open space at the foot of the terraces provides gathering space for teaching or community events.