When Principal Jack Arend talked about Peter G. Schmidt Elementary, he didn't start with square footage or phasing schedules. He started with the mascot. "We are the Eagles," he said, and he meant it. That pride, shared by staff, parents, and students alike, became the starting point for everything that followed. A school is more than a building. It is a place where identity takes root, and this one was designed to honor that from the very first conversation.
Tumwater School District
The new 61,500 square foot facility replaces a single-story open concept predecessor, bringing 625 students into a two-story building designed for security, unity, and collaboration. The floor plan navigates a layered set of site challenges: connecting to an existing gymnasium, maintaining distance from former buildings that stayed operational during construction, and stepping gracefully down an offset in site elevation. Through phased construction, students arrived each morning to a campus that remained safe and familiar, even as something new took shape around them.
The mascot didn't stop at the logo. Natural colors, textures, and materials drawn from a Pacific Northwest eagle's habitat define the building's character throughout. Reclaimed wood, marbled linoleum, and peeled log bring warmth and texture to hallways and gathering spaces, grounding the building in the landscape just beyond its windows. For a young student walking through these doors each morning, the details add up to something harder to name than design: the quiet feeling of being somewhere that was made with you in mind.
Work
