Nathan Hale Shade Shop – Spring 2022
Site
Nathan Hale High School Horticulture & Urban Farm
(at Jane Adams Middle School)
11051 34th Avenue NE
Seattle, WA
Client + Program
The Nathan Hale Horticulture and Urban Farm is a public high school program that teaches students how to grow plants, understand global food systems, and care for the native ecosystem. Students in the program pass their skills and knowledge back to the local community through regular plant sales, hands-on projects, and dedicated community service. Providing students with access to a commercial greenhouse and half-acre garden, the program offers direct experience and insight into related careers, which include agricultural research, farming, public service, greenhouse/nursery management, business, and entrepreneurship, landscape design, and
environmental science.
Site
Working alongside students, teachers, administrators, and the Friends of Nathan Hale Horticulture & Urban Farm Foundation, the Spring of 2022 Neighborhood Design-Build studio was asked to design and construct a shade shop on an underdeveloped corner. Nathan Hale expressed a need for a place to store plants when the greenhouse gets too hot in the summer, and a covered area to make wreaths in November. The Shade Shop includes a permeable roof that provides shade and ventilation while allowing rain to enter and water the plants, a table covered with a roof to provide protection from the elements at the north end of the structure, and a screen wall to block the southern wind.
Design + Construction
Construction was focused on developing pre-fabricated panels which could be built in the studio, pre-assembled in the work yard, and transported to the site. They needed to be able to fit thru a typical door, carried by 2-4 people, and create a durable and beautiful structure. To do this the students created a construction document drawing set, built digital and physical models, and created a budget and construction schedule. The shade shop has a base of accessible gravel, shelter from the winds, and a large open plan to allow for flexible use for wreath making in the winter, plant hardening in the spring, and future teaching activities.
