New Lynnwood High School rises

LYNNWOOD — Bulldozers hum. Construction workers ready steel framing. A school emerges.

Midway through construction on the new Lynnwood High School, the project is on schedule and on budget, said project manager Debra Born.

The foundation is nearly complete and much of the frame of the $99.8 million school is up. Lights surround the baseball field and the football field is ready for turf. Portions of the roof and concrete brick siding are up, and electricians are in the process of wiring the building. Plumbing is also in the works.

“It’s exciting,” Born said, looking over drawings of different parts of the new school. “There’s a lot of ingredients to this project that make it quite rich and stimulating.”

Construction began in June 2007, and the school is scheduled to open to students in September 2009. Furniture and classroom setup is slated to begin next June.

The school, east of I-5 near Mill Creek, will replace the existing Lynnwood High School, which is adjacent to Alderwood mall.

The Edmonds School District has entered into a long-term lease with Texas developer Cypress Equities for the property at the current Lynnwood High School. Cypress plans to use the land to house retail space, multifamily residential units and a hotel. *

Cypress plans to take control of the land in July 2009, according to Marla Miller, an assistant superintendent with the Edmonds School District.

The new Lynnwood High School is expected to be one of the most energy efficient schools in the state. Skylights will be used to keep classrooms on the second floor of the school bright, while two chimneny-like shafts reflect sunlight to bottom-floor rooms.

The school is centered around a two-story common space known as an agora, an ancient Greek word for marketplace. A sculpture of vessels by Walla Walla artist Wayne Chabre meant to showcase Lynnwood’s diversity will hang in the agora. Glass window-walls make it possible to stand outside one side of the school and look through the agora to the other side.

“It is quite a complex, challenging design,” Born said. “There’s not a lot of parallel lines.”

A bond voters passed in 2006 is funding most of the project, with grants, state funds and timber sales paying for the remainder of the school, which is on a formerly wooded lot in a residential neighborhood. The district has owned the land since the late 1960s and always intended to use it for a high school, Born said.

“It’s always exciting to provide a new environment for kids,” said Edward Peters, the district’s capital projects director. “One of the best parts of my job is I get to stand in the front door and watch the kids walk into the building on the first day of school. … It’s going to be a very cool school.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.

*Correction, July 22, 2008: The Edmonds School District has entered into a lease with Cypress Equities for the property at the current Lynnwood High School. This story originally incorrectly described the nature of the transaction.