North Eugene High School
Eugene School District 4J
The new North Eugene High School offers student-centered next-generation learning environments to help students achieve academic success while providing a warm and inviting destination for its diverse, inclusive, and forward-thinking community.
Size: 216,150 sf
Location: Eugene, OR
Design Architect: Opsis Architecture
Architect of Record: Rowell Brokaw Architects
The new 216,150 sf school replaces the aging adjacent 1959 building to the east. The building’s overall organizational concept is a clear, efficient “ring” encompassing a central courtyard that serves as the communal heart of the school. The two-story light-filled Commons connects the courtyard, library and performing arts wing and serves as an inviting face of the school to the community.
With a focus on supporting student success, the Counseling Center and College & Career Center are placed at the school’s front door. An independently operated Health Clinic and Preschool Child Development Center are located with separate public entry points. A cantilevered second floor library creates a beacon facing the main campus entry and parking area.
Career Technical Education (CTE programs are at the heart of the NEHS curriculum and are intermixed with other academic programs throughout the building to encourage cross-disciplinary discovery among students and teachers). Flexible spaces are designed to support Wood and Metal Shops, Digital Media, 3 D and 2 D Art, Culinary Arts, Health Sciences, and Early Childhood Learning. The Performing Arts wing includes a state-of-the-art 400-seat theater, scene shop, dressing rooms, band and choir rooms.
The building massing takes cues from the low slung mid-century modern character of the surround neighborhood by incorporating long, gently sloping roofs that visually reduce the overall scale of the building while smoothly connecting adjacent large volume spaces of the gyms, theater and Commons into a unified massing.
The exterior facades are clad in a combination of brick and metal panels while the courtyard is enclosed with a distinctive multi-colored cladding that when combined with extensive landscaping, creates a lively outdoor learning and social space.
