From concept to completion

When building the Broadway Campus’ design concept, The Neenan Company drew inspiration from the idea of an Italian piazza, situating the buildings to create a central open space for students and community to gather.

Bringing Mapleton Public Schools’ School choice model to life

By David Kurtz & Charlotte Ciancio

Mapleton Public Schools, just north of Denver in Adams County, has been spearheading a distinct approach for the community’s public education offerings, revitalizing the academic options for students. Via its school choice model, Mapleton focuses on providing options for learning to engage the unique needs of each student.

To best prepare, enrich and retain students, the district believes in a “smallby-design” approach where schools are composed of smaller communities of students, with each school providing a different learning model. As opposed to the traditional zoning structure, Mapleton’s parents can choose among each school’s educational approach to determine which environment will best support their children. To provide the foundation for these smaller and distinct learning environments, Mapleton has been fortunate to replace many of the district’s older facilities with strategically designed school buildings. The residents supported this reinvestment in the community’s schools, voting in favor of a $150 million bond issue in 2016 to fund replacements, renovations and repairs touching every school building in the district. The latest success story in the district-wide redevelopment is Mapleton’s Broadway Campus. As the design-build partner for the campus, The Neenan Company worked closely with the school district to bring to life its International Baccalaureate (IB) authorized family of schools—separated into three schools— plus The Mapleton Arts Center (The MAC), a new Performing Arts seventh-through-twelfth grade school, offices and teaching spaces for the Mapleton Online School, the IDEA Lab and Mapleton’s administrative offices. The campus’ former school, originally built as a junior high school in the early 1960s, was more recently used as a K-12 facility supporting approximately 1,000 IB students under one roof. While recognizing that maintaining this setup of one large, single facility would be more cost efficient for the district, Mapleton intentionally decided to separate the IB program into three facilities. Mapleton also added The MAC to the campus, to support all performing arts students

across the district. The district viewed the project as an opportunity to enhance its offerings, and before officially launching the campus’ master planning also was able to purchase an adjacent parcel of land. With this campus expansion, Mapleton added an additional high school, the IDEA Lab and the district’s administrative offices.

In total, the buildings featured on Mapleton’s Broadway Campus include: > Global Primary Academy — Serves pre-kindergarten through third grade students, as well as a toddler program for one- and two-year-old children. The 42,000-square-foot,

two-story school accommodates 300 IB students. > Global Intermediate Academy —

Serves about 350 IB students from fourth through eighth grades in a 46,000-square-foot, two-story building. > Global Leadership Academy —

Serves 400 IB students in ninth through twelfth grades. The 65,000-square-foot, three-story school includes a competition gymnasium and artificial turf soccer field. > The Mapleton Arts Center —

The 45,000-square-foot facility supports all performing arts students across the district. The MAC includes

an auditorium with seating for 900, classrooms, practice space and features professional-level acoustic designs. In the fall, The MAC will also be home to an entirely new offering for Mapleton students—the Performing Arts School on Broadway for seventh-through-twelfth grades, which engages students in the performing arts while learning core content. > The IDEA Lab — The project-based learning center is in a 70,000-square-foot redeveloped facility. Within the building the district also centralized its administrative offices, which had previously been spread into various offices across the district, to foster greater collaboration for the staff. > Mapleton Online — Currently serving approximately 350 students

K-12, this school opened to meet the needs of families not ready to return to in-person learning during the pandemic and has found its niche serving students who thrive in a virtual classroom.

The design concept for the campus focuses on creating a comfortable, village-like environment fostering consistency and familiarity, particularly through the IB students’ pre-kindergarten to high school experience. For the Global Schools, Mapleton and Neenan intentionally worked to deliver designs that felt related yet still tailored to their respective student age groups. Essentially, the team wanted the schools to feel like siblings rather than twins. Displaying this student transition and evolution physically, the pre-kindergarten-third grade school features a playful, youthful aesthetic, which eventually progresses to a more reserved and mature design for the high school. The team was intentional at every turn about maintaining this distinct-yet-connected aesthetic among the schools. In fact, the buildings were deliberately situated far enough apart so that each school can foster its own unique environment and dissuade future opportunities to connect the schools with project additions. They also opted to structure the project with a different architect leading the design of

The Global Primary Academy, for pre-k through third-grade students, features a treehouse in the library, reflecting the intention for each school’s design to cater to the student body’s age group.

Mapleton Public Schools’ Broadway Campus includes three IB schools, The Mapleton Arts Center, an early college-focused high school, a project-based learning center and the district’s administrative offices. The school buildings are situated along the edge of the campus, to create a central open space designed to provide flexibility for student and community use.

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Mapleton Public Schools chose to locate its administrative offices on the Broadway Campus, to provide a centralized office setup for greater collaboration among staff while also providing the opportunity to become part of the campus environment.

Mapleton’s Global Leadership Academy, for high school students, includes an indoor café and outdoor cafeteria plaza that flows into the campus’ central open space.

each school building. While the teams worked collaboratively to ensure a smooth process across the campus, each school benefitted from its designated team having ownership over the building for slight variations. Connecting with the community was another driving factor behind the campus’ design concept, further reinforcing the “village” element. Mapleton was eager to involve the surrounding area and assure the community that the campus was not solely a space for students. To accomplish this, a flexible design was key to the campus’ master planning. The team drew inspiration from the concept of an Italian piazza, placing the school buildings around the perimeter of the campus to create open space between the buildings that could bring shared use among the schools and community. This open space located in the center of the campus layout provides a gathering plaza to support community events, with the team engaging Mapleton staff and community members in design work sessions. The playgrounds and high school’s outdoor cafeteria plaza connect to this open space. One of the entrances to The MAC also faces the open space, providing the option for community events to flow between the lobby’s interior and the outdoor courtyard. Whether for an art show, farmer’s market or craft show, the campus layout is intended to draw the community into the campus. From concept to completion, Mapleton and Neenan worked hand-in-hand to deliver the creative solutions behind this complex project built to impact students and community for decades to come. CCR David Kurtz is a senior architect with The Neenan Company. The Colorado-based firm is a pioneer of the design-build model specializing in creating commercial, education, healthcare and community facilities that generate economic vitality and inspire people to be well, to learn and to lead.

Charlotte Ciancio is in her 22nd year serving as Superintendent of Schools at Mapleton Public Schools. Mapleton Public Schools serves more than 6,700 students in Adams County, just north of Denver. Known nationally for its reform efforts, Mapleton is committed to raising expectations by providing choices for learning and removing obstacles for all students.

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ARE YOU PLANNING A PROJECT IN PUERTO RICO?

Located at the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, the Eco Villas feature an environmental-friendly lodging experience. The site has amazing views to Ensenada Honda and an on-site dock with direct access to Fulladosa Bay. This project aims to enhance its Caribbean context through sustainable tropical design. Photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection, a water pond, cross ventilation, environmental impact reduction are some considerations. A modular concept proposes minimum impact on site, which in turn provides a shortened construction time.

After Hurricane María, the Waterfront Port of Mayagüez Puerto Rico was exposed to high winds, waves, and tidal surge that caused severe damages to the facilities. This forced the US Coast Guard to shut down the pier. Extensive damage and precarious conditions of the Port required significant work to restore it to its pre-event condition and bring it up to code and industry standards. After a broad evaluation, which included multiple studies, the recommendation was to redesign the dock incorporating measures to provide a long-term solution. The objective is to provide protection of essential commercial public services to the Island and reduce the risk of damage in future events.

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