Project Description
Kellogg Middle School is the first new middle school to be built for Portland Public Schools in 50 years. The modern 108,000-square-foot school has been designed to enhance the learning experience for students and be a focal point of its Southeast Portland neighborhood. Built sustainably and to last 100 years, it also features a gym and commons stable enough to withstand an earthquake.
Among the expanded learning options and programs for students in the 6th through 8th grades at Kellogg are:
- Learning Suites to promote greater collaboration
- Commons and cafeteria area for student gatherings and community activities
- Performing arts stage
- Art room with roll-up glass doors that extend to the outdoors
- Indoor athletic facilities and outdoor covered play area, multi-use field and walking paths
- STEAM lab for Maker Space activities
- Learning garden with a solar tracker
Students will be able to monitor the amount energy usage and production, water usage and air quality through digital dashboards featuring real-time data. The project team targeted LEED Gold v4 certification for the project. To achieve certification, tons of waste was diverted from the landfill during building, and many energy-efficient systems were incorporated.
The previous school built by Todd for PPS, Faubion PK-8, was the third school in the world to be certified Gold under LEED v4. Project Manager Anna Todd guided that effort and also did on Kellogg.
The three-story school building is steel framed and features three sets of staircases, including a suspended staircase with strip lighting that allows top-to-bottom views of the school building The gym was built with tilt-up concrete panels that were poured on-site. The polished concrete floors of the school wing and administrative offices feature hydroponic heating. A photovoltaic array on the roof supplies energy to the school and eliminates the need for natural gas.
Kellogg has 33 classrooms, 10 offices and 21 restrooms and sits on a 6-acre site. Educational signage can be found throughout the school, and the exterior courtyards feature concrete benches and a Fibonacci circle engraved with inspirational words.
The school was built on the same site as the former Kellogg Middle School, which had sat vacant for years and was then demolished in 2018. Some architectural concrete features and pieces of the old gym floor were reclaimed from the old building and incorporated into the new facility.
Construction of Kellogg was made possible by a voter-approved 2017 bond levy. The former Kellogg Middle School sat on the same site, but hadn’t been used by the district for the past 10 years. It was demolished in 2018.
Construction on the new school began in 2019 and the school opened in the fall of 2021. It has a capacity of 700 students.
The project won First Place in the K-12 Education category in the 2021 TopProjects Awards Contest sponsored by the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland. The contest recognizes the best projects constructed in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
