Bora designed a new flagship building for Creekside Community High School, a flexible, hands-on learning school committed to fostering a caring community of student leaders engaged in community health, sustainable agriculture, and environmental stewardship.  

The first Zero Energy-certified building for the Tigard-Tualatin School District and one of the first fully net zero K-12 education buildings in the state of Oregon, the new building employs numerous energy-saving strategies to achieve a low EUI. These include a high-performance envelope, an efficient mechanical and electrical system designed by Glumac, and a generous rooftop photovoltaic array that generates 148,000 kW hours/year to offset the power the building uses. An energy dashboard in the building’s commons serves as a teaching tool for students to engage the facility’s performance in real time. 

Wrapping around the campus’s existing historic schoolhouse to define a communal courtyard, the two-story building houses STEM and general classrooms, a computer lab, a state-of-the-art maker space, and an administration suite. A generous kitchen and vegetable garden support the school’s community agriculture partnerships. Seeking a departure from the traditional school environment, the interiors walk the line between cozy residential and high-tech startup with exposed-structure ceilings, textured alcoves and study bars, and sliding barn doors, while Western red cedar punctuates the exterior to project a warm and welcoming tone.