Denver School of Science and Technology
Architect:
School Website:
Guiding Principles:
Community Access; Small Learning Communities; Focused Science and Project Labs; Sustainability; and Building as Teacher.
Description:
400 students, grades 9-12 grade. New construction, two-story, 65,000 SF, completed 2007.
Design Features:
Student Commons; Classroom Hubs, Collaborative Teacher Offices; Movable Walls for Team Teaching, Learning Studios, Flexible Science and Project Labs, Outdoor Courtyards, and Exposed HVAC and Wall Systems.
Awards:
Citation Award, AIA Denver Chapter; Design Concept Award, CEFPI;
Grand Prize Award, Learning by Design
Location:
Denver, Colorado
The first of the DSST Public School’s highly successful public charter K-12 schools, DSST Stapleton established the template for the network’s STEM-focused and liberal arts educational program that has resulted in the creation of over 14 top-ranked, inner city public schools in the Denver area.
The Denver School of Science and Technology (now DSST Public Schools), is the first of a network of 14 K-12, free, open-enrollment public schools, founded in 2004. A college preparatory liberal arts school with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) focus, the original high school serves 400 students in grades 9-12. New Vista served as the Owner’s Representative and Educational Programmer to the school’s founders, New Schools Development Corporation, and worked in close collaboration with the project architects, Klipp Architecture, to ensure that the high school building embodied and supported the design team’s academic vision.
All DSST students are required to complete a rigorous curriculum including passing pre-calculus, 5 years of high school science, a workplace internship, and a senior project to graduate. Based on the Denver Public Schools performance framework (released in September 2008), DSST is the only “Distinguished” rated high school in Denver. Since its opening in 2007, DSST network schools have outperformed every other high school in Denver in both the student learning growth and absolute student performance, with 100% of their graduates matriculating into 4-year colleges. This is particularly notable given that students of color comprise 80% of the student body and 68% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Project Numbers
9-12
grade levels.
400
students.
$8.6m
budget.
