John R. Rogers High School, originally built in 1932, was renovated and restored with a new addition designed to complement the classic art-deco design. The project provides a renewed, state-of-the-art high school and a refreshed, revitalized community icon in a working-class neighborhood with a proud history. The Rogers High School neighborhood is predominantly single-family residential with one arterial, Wellesley Avenue, bordering the north side of the site. Houses in the neighborhood are smaller 1930-1940 era homes. It is envisioned that Wellesley Avenue will one day be an off-ramp arterial of the future north-south corridor freeway, becoming a major business corridor connecting the new freeway to North Town Mall located approximately one-half mile west of the school.Previously, the school site was occupied by multiple additions constructed during the ‘50s, ‘70s and ‘80s surrounding the original school such that the only façade of the original building still exposed to view was the north front entrance. The additions were all single-story structures of varying materials and design, none of which complemented the original structure. The additions also covered or destroyed historic side entrances to the original building where they connected to the original structure. A large installation of portable classroom buildings occupied the southeast corner of the site.The site available for the new addition was relatively small so maximum utilization of the site was necessary to fit the required building addition on site while also maximizing available parking for students and staff, decreasing the number of cars parked on the street in the residential neighborhood.The revitalized campus removes all the single-story buildings that previously engulfed three sides of the building, once again highlighting the original art-deco structure and saving 102,000 square feet of building shell that was reorganized into new academic space. Side entrances once hidden or destroyed previously have been carefully uncovered and reconstructed where necessary, replicating the historic original. The entire exterior of the original building was cleaned, with masonry repointed and cast-stone ornaments repaired or replaced to restore the historic façades.Directly connected at the south end of the original building is a 159,000-square-foot addition designed to be a contemporary complement to the classic original art-deco high school. The project uses materials – brick of similar size and color as well as similar-colored precast concrete – in harmony with the glazed brick and cast stone of the original. Two large, celebratory entrances located on either side of the second-floor curved-glass and metal-panel façade of the library clearly establish entrance points for students and visitors while a third entrance to the athletic center at the east façade is easily seen as secondary to the main entrances.The architecture of the addition further complements the original by utilizing a continuous precast concrete base with strong vertical-column elements, creating a crenellated parapet line similar to the castellated profile at the parapets of the original building.A new clock tower located near the student entrance to the commons becomes a beacon seen from Wellesley, clearly signaling to all that the main school entrance is now on the east side of the campus. This tower has become Rogers’ signature element – an architectural identity icon. Sustainable features of the school were important in the re-birth of the school. Daylighting and views are a major design element within Rogers High School as nearly every classroom has windows, either to the outside of the building or into a courtyard contained within the building. Each room is equipped with lighting sensors that turn lights off after periods of inactivity. To maximize the number of teaching spaces with views, strategies such as incorporating overhead sectional doors with vision glazing into vocational labs were employed. The building is designed to meet the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol.
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