Ervin Early Learning Center

Ervin Early Learning Center

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • Hickman Mills School District
  • Renovation
  • 110,000 SF total
  • $7.5 million

Repurposing an abandoned middle school gave pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students a space their own focused on literacy.

Research shows that students who do not have an early education focused on literacy are more likely to struggle throughout school and into adulthood. This dedicated brain-based facility for young learners allowed the District to put an emphasis on this issue without committing more square footage to Kindergarten. It also gave the District more classroom space within each elementary school for older grade levels.

ervin-wide

Metropolitan Community College Student Success Center

Metropolitan Community College – Penn Valley Campus Student Success Center

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • Metropolitan Community College
  • Renovation
  • 15,000 SF
  • $1.4 million

Students are drawn to the Student Success Center’s second floor. It’s a bustling, highly flexible environment used daily for individual or small group study.

What was once a dark, broken-up and uninviting space is now a bright, open place where students want to be. Flexible furniture makes students feel comfortable and welcome and encourages various study styles. The new Success Center connects to the library, humanities building and campus center in a highly visible way, allowing students more collaborative learning.

Summit Ridge Middle School

Summit Ridge
Summit Ridge

Summit Ridge Middle School

LITTLETON, COLORADO

  • Jefferson County Public Schools
  • Addition/Renovation
  •  13,000 SF
  • $4.8 million

Visual connectivity and strategically designed collaborative spaces have led to an evolution of learning styles at this newly combined middle school. 

Jeffco Public Schools in Denver, Colorado recently decided to transition their sixth-grade students into middle-school, and needed to accommodate for the addition of 400 students. The existing building hosted traditional classrooms and learning areas, challenging the design team to seamlessly integrate the two buildings while incorporating collaborative learning elements into the addition. Hollis + Miller worked directly with the principal, faculty, community members, and students to create a design that would introduce collaboration spaces and a learning stair alongside new classrooms and science labs. Renovations to the school’s STEAM classrooms allow more students access to hands on education with computer aided design, engineering, and fabrication.

Blue Springs High School

BLUE SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL

BLUE SPRINGS, MISSOURI

  • Blue Springs School District
  • Addition
  • 74,000 SF
  • $30.2 million

A strategic blend of acoustical features, architectural elements and environmental graphics emulates school pride throughout every detail of the new addition at Blue Springs High School.

Blue Springs High School wanted to enclose its existing outdoor courtyard to ensure security and update existing facilities, including a state-of-the-art band room, stadium upgrades, a new media center and third auxiliary gym. To provide a holistic campus experience for students and visitors, complementing colors, textures and materials were selected to align with the existing buildings while integrating new details for a fresh face.

One of the prioritized goals was to design a cutting-edge facility housing the school’s nationally renowned band program. The two-story space boasts various acoustical features equally as aesthetic as they are functional, reinforcing Blue Springs Wildcat pride. The band room’s exterior glass includes a printed soundwave of the school fight song, while the bricks frame the main windows in a strategic pattern mimicking the keys of a piano.

Serving as a notable landmark for students to navigate their way through the high school campus, the media center features a “Collab Lab” crafted of wooden slats and situated above the rest of the common area, similar to a treehouse. A number of breakout spaces for both individual and group study accommodate students whether they choose to read, study or socialize between classes. Environmental graphics tie the spaces together for a Wildcat experience at the heart of campus that will serve students for years to come.

East Middle School

East Middle School
East Middle School

East Middle School

JOPLIN, MISSOURI

  • Joplin School District
  • New Construction
  • 125,800 SF total
  • $30.4 million

A shared building with a well-defined threshold eases the transition from elementary to middle school, while a bold, vibrant color palette set this young adult space apart from elementary.

Sharing a site with Soaring Heights Elementary School, it’s important that the architecture, design and environmental graphics emphasize the maturity, focus and confidence that comes with young adulthood.

This school replaces the middle school lost on May 22, 2011, when the worst tornado disaster on record to date in the United States hit to the City of Joplin. The Superintendent called this effort “Operation Rebuild.”

Millcreek Campus

Millcreek Campus
Millcreek Campus

Millcreek Campus

OLATHE, KANSAS

  • Olathe USD 233
  • Addition & Renovation
  • 98,000 SF
  • $16 million

Learners of all ages – toddler to adult – now feel at home at the renamed Millcreek Campus. This multi-generational learning environment houses several of the District’s community and alternative learning programs. With all these generations meeting in this one space, collaborative learning is taken to the next level.

The Parents as Teachers program hosts parents of young children for playgroups and child development support. Flexible learning environments and specialized spaces allow middle and high school students with special circumstances the opportunity to catch up or stay on track with their schoolwork, and adult education classroom spaces offer community members the opportunity to expand their career opportunities.

This historic campus was previously known as the John P. St. John Memorial High School, originally built in 1926. This outdated facility housed many of these educational and community programs in three separate buildings. Our design team worked with the District’s educational partners to reimagine the campus, starting with an addition that connects the buildings and allows for more collaboration and engagement. Today, the space welcomes learners of every generation– making it a learning environment like no other.

millcreeknew

St. James Academy

ST. JAMES ACADEMY

LENEXA, KANSAS

  • Archdiocese of Kansas City-Kansas
  • New Construction
  • 108,000 SF

Located in a growing suburb within the greater Kansas City area, this facility integrates and adapts to changes in education, spirituality and technology.

The Chapel serves as the Heart of the Campus. This statement not only led to the present location of the Chapel, but also a concept of allowing students to be in the Presence of Christ as they experienced the building through visual connections to the Tabernacle. The Chapel is also flexible enough to not only accommodate 200 students, but the entire 800-student population, and still maintain a contiguous space so that they felt like they were apart of the Mass. We accomplished this by combining the allocated space for dining, gathering, and the Chapel into one large common centralized space detailed with similar materials and volume.

st-james-2
St-james-1

Guadalupe Centers

As a hub in the Latino communities of Kansas City, the Guadalupe Centers’ elementary and library renovations will allow the program to efficiently serve more individuals for years to come.

Continue reading

Olathe West High School

Olathe West High School

OLATHE, KANSAS

  • Olathe USD 233
  • New Construction
  • 375,000 SF
  • $85 million
  • Design Partner: Stantec Architecture

Learning is on display at this one-of-a-kind high school.

From the moment students walk in the door, they’re greeted with the media center and the 21st Century Learning program labs. Student socialization and collaboration are encouraged with two learning stairs connecting academic neighborhoods.

Academic neighborhoods house a variety of spaces from flexible labs to blended learning environments, giving the school a more collegiate feel. No teacher owns their classroom, but rather chooses the environment that will work best for that day’s lesson.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • AIA Kansas – Citation Award in Large Architecture
  • A4LE Midwest Great Lakes – John Shaw Award

Carpenters’ Union Training Facility

Kansas City – St. Louis Carpenters’ Training Facility

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • Adaptive Reuse
  • 68,000 SF
  • $5.7 million

Apprentices and instructors have the room and storage they need for all their trades to learn in this new training facility. 

Moving from an older, smaller space to an adapted former big box store gave the Carpenters Union not just the right amount but the right type of space to combine its training facility with its regional offices. Apprentices split their time between classrooms and the workshop, so every classroom is physically or visually connected to the workshop. Large graphics make the room numbers easily visible from anywhere in the facility.

This facility also serves as the regional office for the Carpenters Union of Kansas City – St. Louis. The front of the space features an administrative suite, and the facility also has the ability to open up for public events including community meetings and political rallies.