This project resolves two acute needs at Moscow Middle School; providing and all-season outdoor lunch area, and an improved covered main entrance. It was a collaborative effort between Idaho Design Build and a wide array of stakeholders in within the Moscow School District.

As a studio, we immersed in classes, shared lunches, conducted surveys and interviewed students and staff. This time was integral to understanding the hopes and needs for the school. The collaborative effort included multiple presentations to district staff, the middle school staff, and a public presentation to the school district board.   

The resulting design improves accessibility, and greatly increases all-season outdoor capacity in the lunch area. The new main entrance provides a welcoming experience that is protected from the elements and easily identified from the street. 

This project makes extensive use of offcuts, scrap and salvaged material, leaning in to the ideal that waste material is and should be primary resource, rather than an afterthought or a highlight. Almost all the wood and steel in the project was was salvaged and resawn for the project..Roofs are made of offcut polygal from other projects. Countertops are salvaged gymnasium flooring, plywood walls come from disassembled dorm room beds that were headed to landfill.