As the 2022-23 school year commences, students and staff have begun to explore the many new additions and improvements.

The design workshops have been updated from closets to spacious classrooms with a variety of new tools. The old choir and band rooms lacked good acoustics and recording capabilities. Now, the classrooms are installed with microphones and soundproof walls and ceilings. 

Another new space for recording music and podcasts in the building is the studio room for the audio engineering class, located on the fourth floor. Junior Mika Sarver Huber appreciates the support for Lincoln’s musicians. 

“I think that the studio room was a great idea. Now all the talented musicians can come in and just jam and be able to turn that into more developed ideas and music,” Sarver Huber said.

Many of the new spaces were designed specifically for the classes occupying them. Vice Principal Chris Brida is excited about the intentionality behind the location and design of the classrooms.

“Take culinary arts for example,” he said. “That’s a class that was effectively operating out of the other half of nutrition services last year, and now has a dedicated space with all the tools that Chef [culinary arts teacher Melanie Hammericksen] needs to run a commercial kitchen.”

Another updated feature to the building is the new, larger darkroom. It has an adjoined room that can be made completely dark to process rolls of film. Beth Bundy, Lincoln’s photography teacher, believes the improved ventilation is also an important new feature.

“The chemicals in the darkroom can often be toxic,” she said. “I think [the ventilation] is a major perk because I really want to make sure students are safe.”

The inclusion of a darkroom after a school rebuild is special to Lincoln as other high schools across Portland Public Schools (PPS) including Grant and Franklin removed their darkrooms after renovations.

“I know for a fact that multiple other schools that have been rebuilt got rid of their darkrooms,” Bundy said. “I’m glad that we kept it.”

The darkroom is not currently operational, but Bundy expects it will be fully ready for her classes next year. Other new spaces, like the green room for the broadcast journalism class, are also still being finished. Brida explains that the transition to the new building is still happening.

“I just think that there’s a lot of things that our students haven’t got to experience fully yet, and that’s all coming,” he said.