New Imagery: Cascade Middle School
Thanks to Bethel voters approving a bond measure in 2020, which allowed the school district to replace a 67-year-old school, Cascade Middle School opened in the fall of 2024. Designed to accommodate a growing community, the 85,000-sf facility serves 550 students. Photographer Christian Columbres captures Bethel School District’s Cascade Middle School in a new series of images.
The main entry features a plaza where students can wait during drop-off or pick-up. In the covered entry area—where the double-story classroom wing meets the single-story administrative wing—students enter the wood façade through a glass curtain wall. The secure entry vestibule leads directly to the Main Office and the Commons beyond. Similarly, a secondary entry, developed to separate buses from other vehicles, connects to the Commons via a plaza, wood façade, and glass entryway. On the exterior, the wood—set against brick-veneer and metal-panel cladding—aids wayfinding.
On the south façade, the wood indicates the circulation that spans the length of the classroom wing. This two-story volume contains both vertical and horizontal circulation: stairs and hallways. Its lower, flat roof enabled the design team to tuck the building’s mechanical equipment between the higher shed roofs above the classrooms. Also on this flat roof, skylights, placed above openings in the second floor, bring light to the center of the building on both floors.
Sunset shots illuminate the building’s massing, use of materials, rhythm of windows, and its transparent and inviting entry.
The Commons is an expansive, active space. Roughly 3,500-sf and double-height, the Commons is used for informal gathering, dining, and special events. Wood slats on the ceiling and walls create welcome and warmth while also absorbing sound. With multiple entries, exits, pathways, and seating, the Commons allows for movement and pause. It acts as a central hub visually connecting all parts of the school: the main entry and lobby, administration wing, music and PE wing, media center, classroom wing, and outdoor spaces.
A mural by artist Pattrick Price helps draw attention to the Media Center directly connected to the Commons. This adjacency has many benefits. It serves as a visual reminder of the learning at the heart of the school. On a practical level, the Media Center’s proximity allows students to find a quiet space to read or interact when the Commons is experiencing high-use, such as during lunch. The Media Center can also easily be opened for after-hour activities while keeping the wings of the building locked.
In the Media Center, carpeting, soffits, and furniture, all work together to create a quiet, comfortable place.
The school’s two-story classroom wing includes a cluster of larger spaces for science, art, and CTE classes. Smaller common, break-out spaces alleviate interior hallways. Like the main Commons, these flexible spaces feature wood, color accents, daylight, spatial and visual connectivity, and various seating options.
Classroom design provides carefully placed windows to bring controlled daylight into each room and visually connect students to the outdoor landscaping, green space, and the mountains to the east. After years of piecemeal upgrades and tangles of wires overhead, classrooms are now equipped with streamlined, modern technology, including enhanced audiovisual (AV) capabilities. Cabinetry with sinks, even in general classrooms, give teachers and students flexibility.
Special attention was given to the acoustics of the music rooms. The array of wall and ceiling acoustic panels in both the choir room and band room manage sound waves, reducing echo and reverberation, producing clearer acoustic quality.
In the PE/Athletics wing, a main large gym seats the entire school population, has flexible AV capabilities, and houses all typical sport amenities. An auxiliary gym, with modest seating, helps meet the school’s everyday PE needs. Outside school hours, both gyms provide much-needed facilities for community sports. Locker rooms, teacher offices, restrooms, and equipment storage support these spaces. A 250kW array of solar panels covers the entire roof of this wing, providing on-site power generation and, during the summer months, feeds back into the City’s electrical grid.
As part of the overall project, a new synthetic turf field was built on a site shared with Willamette High School. Designed primarily as Willamette High School’s girls’ softball field, removal of outfield fencing allows the size of the field to expand and be used, during off-season, as a soccer practice field and for community sports and events. Supporting the facility is field lighting, fencing, dugouts, storage, and bleachers. The project also included converting a former music building into a community health facility.
After staff moved into the new middle school over the summer, the old school was demolished. The land is currently being transformed into a large green area for both student and public use. This area helps preserve many of the site’s beloved trees.