Tyee History Wall

The original Tyee High School, with buildings constructed from 1963 to 1991, was determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) in November 2022.

The history panels in the library and this Tyee History Wall web page are based on a report about Tyee and a historic survey of Highline schools. These were among the documentation and outreach required under an agreement related to the demolition and replacement of the school.

The agreement with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP), related to the demolition and replacement of the original Tyee High School, required historic documentation and public outreach. The documentation included a report and updated DAHP historic property inventory on Tyee High School’s history and architecture, a historic context report on the district, and a historic survey of Highline’s existing schools. Outreach includes the interpretive panels installed in the Tyee library and this website page.

The reports and survey were prepared by Susan Boyle of BOLA Architecture + Planning and David Peterson of David Peterson Historic Resource Consulting.

Print copies were provided to the school library, the Bow Lake and Burien libraries and the Highline Heritage Museum.

Design of the interpretive display was coordinated by Integrus Architecture, Vanir Construction Management and staff from the Highline Public Schools Communications and Capital Planning & Construction teams. Several Tyee alumni and Friends of Tyee volunteers shared historic materials and reviewed the library display panels.

To request digital copies of the reports and survey in PDF format, email communication@highlineschools.org.

The original Tyee High School, built in 1963, was a hallmark of mid-century Modernist design, notable for its six circular buildings arranged in a V shape around a courtyard. Each with 14 sides, the round buildings housed classrooms, offices, a library, and a cafetorium.

Centered north of the circular buildings, a rectangular building contained the district’s largest gym at the time.

The buildings were connected by covered walkways with distinctive zigzag rooflines made of corrugated steel. A later remodel flattened the geometric rooflines. Inspired by California-style schools with many exterior walkways, this open-air design was better suited to warmer climates than the Pacific Northwest.

The circular buildings were numbered 100-600. The Cafetorium (Building 100) had a sloped roof, a kitchen, a rounded stage in the center and tiered music classrooms. Its diameter was 120 feet—slightly larger than the other five circular structures, which were 110 feet in diameter and had flat roofs.

By the 1960s, school architecture was shifting from the multi-story buildings common in the early 20th century toward single-story, open-plan designs supporting team teaching and flexible spaces. Modernism, with its emphasis on functional simplicity and a connection to nature, influenced Tyee's design. So too did the post-World War II baby boom, new construction materials and emerging educational theories.

Tyee was the fifth high school built in the Highline School District, at the end of a period of rapid enrollment and regional economic growth spurred by Boeing and Sea-Tac Airport. The original school cost $1.5 million and served the SeaTac community for 60 years.

Tyee’s circular buildings were similar to a design titled “School for 1950” featured in the October 1949 Architectural Forum magazine. This round building design had a central space for team teaching surrounded by pie-shaped classrooms. It was noted for its compactness, cost-efficiency and lack of “wasteful” corridors. The non-parallel walls were said to aid in acoustics.

Tyee’s circular buildings were constructed of concrete block masonry with radiating, exposed, glulam (glued laminated) timber beams supported by steel columns. The glulam beams cantilevered beyond the exterior walls in alternating lengths, creating a deep serrated overhang to protect students using the concrete walkways wrapping around each building. Continuous walls of tall, aluminum-framed, single-pane windows, in sets of six, took in natural lighting and views of courtyard landscaping and trees.

Doors were distributed around the perimeter of most of the buildings, allowing direct access to classrooms.

• Building 200, with its large science labs, had only a main entrance and exit, with a 20-foot-diameter central domed space intended to be a planetarium.
• Building 300 had a 50-foot-diameter central lecture room accessible from the surrounding classrooms.
• Until it was demolished in 1991 and replaced with a parking lot on the west side of campus, the circular Building 400 contained a wood shop, metal shop, a ceramics area and a paint booth.
• At the center of the Main Office/Library (Building 500) was a circular landscaped courtyard with a Japanese Maple tree, surrounded by windows.

Perpendicular to the original gym (Building 700), another rectangular building was added in 1986. Building 900 included space to support students with various special education and physical needs, including the deaf and hard of hearing program. It provided expanded gym space, locker rooms, a physical therapy pool and vocational training.

In 1991, two-thirds of the gym was converted into two levels of classrooms. A new gym and shop spaces were added on the east, connected by a lobby. When the original Building 400 was demolished, its number was reassigned to the later gym addition. The rectangular buildings 400, 700, 900 and 1000 were all connected.

New Tyee High is 'Most Unique'

"Highline School District’s fifth and most unique high school, Tyee, located at 4424 S. 188th St., was formally dedicated Wednesday, Dec. 11.

Carl Jensen, superintendent of school district, made the introductions and Louis Bruno, state superintendent of public instruction gave the main address. Following the program, an open house inspection of the school and a regular meeting of the school board were held.

The school, built at a cost of $1,338,156, is unusual in the fact that it is made up of six round buildings and a large rectangular gymnasium and is the result of co-operative school-King County planning.

The circular buildings include five classrooms and a multi-purpose cafetorium which is used for lunchroom services and also houses band, orchestra and choral activities. It also includes a circular stage and auditorium.

Since the Tyee site is only ten acres—not enough acreage by state standards—an agreement was reached between the local school authorities and the King County government whereby the county furnishes 33 acres of recreation space and many sports facilities and equipment for joint usage. In turn, the school district would furnish a gymnasium, locker room and shower facilities for joint usage."

Photo caption

"TYEE HIGH scene shows portions of the circular and rectangular buildings connected by breezeways, that make up the newest and most unusual of Highline School District’s high schools. Dedication ceremonies for the new school, located at 4424 S. 188th St., were held today (Dec. 11) [1963]."

260 IN FIRST TYEE GRADUATION

First Ever Tyee Commencement Set For June 10 [1965]

"Class speakers at the first commencement to be held at Tyee High School had to beat some rugged competition to win a place on the program.

Honor students are Roger Baer, Mary Davisson, Duncan Griggs, Carol Gustafson, Sharon Harter, Carol Hesse, Carolyn Iblings, Neil Mathison, Rodney Mitchell, Brian Nupen, Carol Oyloe, Alan Rither and Greg Yahna.

To insure [sic] the three speakers finally chosen would be the best, all seniors interested in the job had to fill out an application, then present a short speech to a judging committee.

The three picked by the committee as the ones who will best represent Tyee’s first graduating class are Sue Ditmore, Carol Oyloe and Martin Ruiga. Each will speak on a part of the class motto, “First to lead, first to conquer.”

Teacher-speaker for the commencement, which will be held at 8 p.m. June 10, will be David Wackerbarth, who will talk on “The Future—Maturity or Irresponsibility.”

Superintendent of Schools Carl Jensen will also speak to the class. James Rice, School Board member, will present diplomas.

Dr. Melvin A. Allan, president of Highline College, will give the Baccalaureate address. He will talk on “The Leader’s First Conquest.”'

[Below the photo, with the headline, "These Students Will Receive Diplomas," is a list of the 260 names of the first graduating class of Tyee High School, 1965.]

Tyee High School, as first built, was designed by Steinhart Theriault & Anderson, an architecture firm formed in the mid-1950s. The three partners all graduated from the University of Washington School of Architecture where they were influenced by and embraced the ideals of Modernism.

All three were local residents, living in Normandy Park or Three Tree Point in Burien.

Two of their Seattle structures, their own office building and the Swedish Club, are on the National Register of Historic Places. They also designed the Normandy Park Community Club at the Cove, Glendale Lutheran Church in Burien, and three other Highline schools: Sylvester Junior High School (1953), Glacier High School (1959), and Pacific Junior High School (1961).

Absher Construction Company of Puyallup was selected through a public bid process to build the 1963 Tyee High School.

Beginning as a logging firm, Absher started construction contracting in 1940, building mostly residential projects. During the late 1950s, Absher began a series of large public works projects leading up to constructing the original Tyee High School. Other notable projects constructed by Absher include Truman Middle School, Russell Music Center at Pacific Lutheran University, Pierce Transit's Tacoma Dome Station, and Des Moines Elementary School (2019).

Absher Construction transitioned from a family-owned firm to an employee-owned company through a stock ownership program in 2022.

Beginning in 2005, Tyee High School was known as the Tyee Educational Complex for a decade.

During most of this time, it was divided into three small schools:

1. Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE),
2. Global Connections High School, and
3. Odyssey – The Essential School.

Odyssey was housed in the 800 building on the Chinook campus and closed in 2014.

By the 2017-2018 school year, ACE and Global Connections were recombined into Tyee High School.

By 2022, Highline voters had approved tax funds to construct the replacement for a now-aging, open campus with oddly-shaped classrooms.

During the building permit process, the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) reviewed the new Tyee project. They found the original buildings eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. An agreement was made for their demolition and the construction of new buildings. As part of the agreement, this interpretive display and a detailed report were created. These preserve the history of this significant architectural example. The full report is available in the school library, the Highline Heritage Museum, and local King County libraries.

In a fitting echo of history, Absher Construction Company submitted the winning bid to demolish the original school and construct Tyee’s next chapter.

Tyee High School 2.0, designed by Integrus Architecture, opened in 2025.

The gold star represents the location of Tyee High School.

This aerial photo of the Tyee High School campus shows 1986 additions and alterations. Yellow highlights where Building 900 was added northwest of the main office/library building.

In the left panel of this aerial photo of Tyee, a yellow circle indicates where the circular Building 400 used to be (west side of campus). In the right panel, the new two-story main gym is highlighted in yellow as well as the new 400 Building, east of the new gym. 

A new second floor with classrooms was added to Building 700 (not highlighted), adjacent on the west of the new main gym. The original gym in Building 700 became an auxiliary gym.

The image is an architectural rendering of the new Tyee High School, designed by Integrus Architecture. Absher Construction was the contractor for both the 1963 and 2025 versions of Tyee High School.

Tyee High School once boasted the only high school observatory in the state—and it was built by students. When an observatory proposed above the science building was trimmed from the 1991 remodel project, chemistry and physics teacher Warren Levenhagen said, “Forget it. We’ll do it ourselves.”

Over 200 students helped, earning extra science credits. They used an old storage space that once held an incinerator. They scrounged materials left over from school remodeling projects, raised funds and pounded nails. The design and construction included a concrete floor, lots of crazy angles, and a retractable roof that operated with bowling balls for weights. It took 587 days to get the necessary building permit, first from King County—and then from the City of SeaTac, after it was incorporated.

The 27-foot-tall tower housed a telescope with a 10-inch-wide mirror. Over 56 students signed up for classes the first year to use the observatory.

The observatory was a new addition to the Tyee campus this year. The idea to build the observatory came about three and a half years ago out of some students' science fair projects.

So after a lot of research done by science teacher, Mr. Levenhagen, the observatory was under way. Through many contributions and fund-raisers, students and alumni helped build the observatory on top of an old storage place that once held an incinerator.

Mr. Levenhagen worked with students before, during, and after school, on weekends, and school vacations to finish up the project. Students from the astronomy class worked on displays to put in the observatory and they hope that the observatory will be the highlight of this year’s science fair.

It is proven that a lot of patience and hard work has paid off for Tyee students.

KCTS 9 recognized the teacher’s inspirational leadership with a Washington State Golden Apple Award in 1993 and showed student video footage of the build.

(A QR code on the interpretive panel connected to a video of a KCTS segment about the award and the observatory project, but the video is no longer available online.)

Wood deck roof on the library is reclaimed glulam (glued laminated wood) beams from the original buildings.

Spirit rock, originally located outside Building 600.

Forum seating in the commons is reclaimed glulam (glued laminated wood) beams from the original buildings.

Wainscot (wall paneling) on the west side of the commons wall is reclaimed gym floor from the original 1963 gym.

Photographs of the murals (from the original buildings's exteriors) are displayed in the stairways.