School news in Mercer Island.
MIHS student musicians named to honor groups
Thirty-two Mercer Island High School students in band, choir and orchestra have been selected to participate in the 2017 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All-State and All-Northwest honor groups this coming February.
“Their success is a testament to the commitment and talent of their teachers and to the unwavering support of their parents as well,” said Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano.
These students were selected from hundreds of applicants representing six states that submitted recordings and were screened individually by professional musicians. They will participate and perform in one of a number of large ensembles led by nationally-renowned conductors at the NAfME Northwest convention to be held in Bellevue February 16 to 19, 2017.
“We are so proud of all our fine musicians and know that they will represent MIHS with pride,” said Parker Bixby, director of bands at MIHS.
Students receiving All-Northwest recognition are: Cameron Cummings, Jacob Evans, Katherine Gelsey, Isabel Hernandez, Tommy Latkowski, Cameron Lee, Lauren Nakatsu, Minje Park, Daniel Pooley, Zoe Sheill, Max Waller, Verli Chen and Leo Zhang.
Students receiving All-State recognition are: Kari Anderson, Joelle Arcuino, Sam Bailey, Alan Bi, Rebecca Bone, Ben Dizon, Lindsay Gao, Andrew Motz, Kathryn Ristuben, Sophia Ristuben, Alex Rosenbaum, Christopher Toda, Adam Tucker, Nathan Wacker, David Wei, Tyler Woo, Mona Xue and Kyle Yu.
Northwood Elementary design receives award
Mahlum Architects has been awarded the prestigious Honor Award for 2016 from AIA Seattle for its design of Northwood Elementary School on Mercer Island, one of only three given this year and the only one given to a school building.
The jury said the extraordinary eco-friendly design of Northwood, which opened to students this fall, “makes me rethink the environment I let my kids grow up in.”
“What a tribute this award represents, not only for the efforts that the Mahlum Architects team put forth, but also that of countless others in our Island community who must be commended for helping in this achievement,” said Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano.
The jurors, Mimi Hoang of nARCHITECTS in New York and Anna Dyson, who teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, praised Northwood at the recent awards presentation in Benaroya Hall: “This is the project that nearly brought us to tears.” They called Northwood “so well scaled that as an adult you really felt a little too big.”
In their remarks to the audience published in the Daily Journal of Commerce, they also lauded Northwood’s “interconnected yet clearly legible” spaces that make occupants feel expansive and connected with the outdoors.
The building layers learning spaces around a courtyard that opens to the restored Madrona grove and the Boys and Girls Club next door. Learning spaces ring the courtyard, featuring classrooms on two levels to the north and community spaces to engage site partners to the south. The building’s materials and acoustic design serve spatial connections seamlessly, and the jurors noted that “normally it would be impossible to place the cafeteria next to a library.”
Northwood was selected from among 146 entries in the AIA Seattle Honor Awards.
The Mahlum team led by Rebecca Hutchinson, David Mount and JoAnn Wilcox partnered with the Northwood design team, the Mercer Island School Board, the city’s Design Commission and district staff in creating the building following the community’s historic approval of the 2014 bond proposition. Bayley Construction of Mercer Island served as the general contractor and Brandy Fox of CPM Seattle managed the project for the district.
