COTTONWOOD ELEMENTARY

Type: Educational
Client: Kennewick School District
Location: Kennewick, Washington

After leading a comprehensive educational specification process, MMEC designed this new 51,000 SF, two-story K-5 school to serve a growing area of Kennewick. The building forms take advantage of daylight, improving the effectiveness of interior spaces and expressing an elementary school that prioritizes community involvement. An asymmetrical butterfly roof rises from the central entrance core to create a clerestory while dramatically expressing the building’s connection between form and experiencing voluminous spaces, emphasizing interior circulation, daylight, and visibility, allowing users to understand the layout of the building intuitively. The facility incorporates several energy-saving measures and meets the criteria of the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol.