Located in the rolling hills surrounding the city of Wausau, Horace Mann Middle School is designed to offer maximum facilities to 1,200 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and their community within a compact 200,000 square-foot space.

The two-story classroom structure houses four wings, one for each grade level and one for exploratory classes: art, family and consumer education, and technology education labs. These wings are located on either side of a central core housing administration, computer labs, and a two-story IMC. The classroom wings are composed of academic and special needs classrooms arranged around a core of science rooms and grade-level resource areas.

A commons area, which provides entry to the school from either side of the building, links the classroom wings to the auxiliary areas of the school, such as the cafeteria, music, and physical education. The cafeteria also functions as an auditorium (cafetorium), with a raised platform at one end and sloped theater-style seating at the other. When not in use as part of the auditorium, these seating areas can be closed off and used as large group meeting areas for as many as 400 students. The physical education area includes three gymnasia (two for basketball and one for gymnastics and wrestling) a swimming pool and student, staff, and public locker rooms. The gyms, pool, or auditorium can be accessed and used separately by the community without allowing access to the classroom areas.