In 38 years as an educator, Carol Campbell has enjoyed many at Portland, Oregon’s Grant High School: nine years as a teacher, a parent of two graduates, and—after stints as principal at two other regional high schools—she was back to lead it in 2013. When voters passed a school bond directing $138 million to Grant, Campbell turned down the job of district superintendent to lead the school’s modernization. “Grant was built in 1923 for the way education has been delivered over the last 100 years,” she says. “We had a chance to break up that model to deliver instruction more creatively.”
Hired to substantially upgrade the school in 2015, the local office of Mahlum Architects quickly learned that when Campbell uses the pronoun “we,” she means it. In decades of designing over 200 schools, the architects at Mahlum had never engaged in such a collaborative design process, says project designer Rene Berndt: more than 100 user-group meetings, four public workshops, and a dozen meetings with a more than 20-person design-advisory group (DAG). Faculty, parents, preservationists, and neighborhood activists weighed in. So, of course, did students, with Campbell inviting full-throated participation from kids of color and those who identify as transgender.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.