Page 30 - Colorado Construction & Design

Education Project Round Up
Red Rocks Community College public space - MPuckett Photography
Explore PK-8 School
Red Rocks Community College Undergoes Renovations
The Red Rocks Community College Main Campus building located in Lakewood underwent approximately 46,000 square feet of renovations, improving existing classroom and public spaces. The Community Room and support spaces received mechanical upgrades, electrical upgrades, new finishes, and upgraded bathrooms. 5,800 square feet of usable space
was added to the second floor where an open atrium previously existed.
The project team includes: W.E. Oneil, Yon Tanner Architecture, Studio 818 Engineering, Corey Electrical Engineering and McGrath Engineering.
Completed in July 2020, Explore PK-8 was built on the historic Carlson Family Ranch in Thornton. This new school is a replacement facility carrying forward the existing expeditionary learning curriculum. Mapleton School District was very grateful that the Carlson’s sold the land to the District and established a design goal that the building pay homage to the land’s history. The design elements of a ranch and ranch house were incorporated into the design of the school, including; front and back porches with rocking chairs, paddocks (protected outdoor areas), barn and barn doors, a reading silo, a garden to table farm area, and a tree lined entry.
Students enter the 59,800 square foot single-story school under the front porch. The entry immediately leads into the two-story open volume of the Learning and Dining Commons that is focused around a central hearth and fireplace adorned with a school brand. Accessed off of this community space is the PK-2 classroom wing. The classrooms are organized in pairs of grade levels around
30 | Colorado Construction & Design
Explore PK-8 School rendering
a common space. The 3-8 classroom wing consists of a series of four classroom houses. Each house has its own amenity spaces, which includes a group break out space and restrooms. Each of the breakout spaces has access to an exterior classroom space to enhance expeditionary learning, which is separated from the exterior play by a creek bed with pedestrian bridges.
To support the expeditionary learning program, the exterior playground is designed around the fundamentals of nature play. The play equipment is not the traditional primary colored plastic and steel elements, rather composed of natural materials of timbers and rocks. The play area is divided into a series of zones, connected with interesting paths and educational signage explaining the plant materials the students are passing by, insects and animals, and the history of the site.
Design Build Team: JHL Constructors and Hord Coplan Macht
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