Mercer Middle School

mercer middle school

Seattle, Washington

CLIENT

Seattle Public Schools

size

175,000 sf

YEAR

2025

Sitting atop the ridge of Beacon Hill in Seattle, Mercer Middle School lacked prominence within its community and offered only a desolate large and graded paved site for outdoor space. The new design reclaims the character of the site by reorienting the school, recreating natural topography, and designing a sustainable school surrounded by native trees. An extensive stakeholder engagement process, involving students, teachers, staff, community members, and the design team helped materialize guiding principles, design ideas, and sustainability goals.

Serving 1000 students, the classroom wings are situated towards the back of the site, offering privacy and immediate access to outdoor learning space. The main entry located at the south edge of the site offers admin, gym, and common spaces that are easily accessible to the community. Moving the footprint of the building towards the street invites learners in and positions the school as a beacon to the surrounding neighborhood. The central corridor of the building serves as the main thoroughfare and draws inspiration from the native name of the land, meaning “green and yellow spine.” This went on to lend additional influence to layout, materiality, and color palettes. 

Sustainability is a major focus of this project, as it was crucial to the stakeholder engagement process. The building is designed to have low embodied carbon and to be energy efficient utilizing a mass timber structural system, ground loop heat pump, daylighting strategies, durable brick façade, and low VOC materials. The design showcases the mass timber structure, highlights opportunity for ample daylight, and offers views of the community surrounding and the mountains beyond.