Fort Collins, CO – The Neenan Company, a fully integrated design-build firm based in Colorado, is an award winner and category finalist for International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) Rocky Mountain Chapter BESTawards, recognizing two adaptive reuse projects in education and healthcare.
The Neenan Company’s work on the Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins (CECFC) replacement facility was honored with the LEARN project award, which recognizes creative interior design projects that advance the education field. Serving as the architect and general contractor for the project, The Neenan Company strategically designed the facility to accommodate and support CECFC’s quickly growing student base, which now serves 800 students from grades 9-12 and is the only school in Northern Colorado that offers students the opportunity to earn an associate degree at no cost.
CECFC’s 91,000-square-foot facility was completed in 11 months due to The Neenan Company’s collaborative design-build process. Named the Innovation Campus, the former Advanced Energy building in Fort Collins was converted by The Neenan Company into the new educational facility. The redevelopments expanded the public, tuition-free, charter school to almost four times the size of the school’s former building. Interior spaces in the large square building integrate daylighting with skylights in high-bay spaces and corridors leveraging the industrial nature of the building. The expanded facility includes more than 30 teaching spaces, four science labs, art and music rooms, a gymnasium, bookstore, tutoring center, full health clinic, 450-seat auditorium and iNNOlab maker space and a full kitchen and cafeteria to support the cultivation of vegetables onsite for the Farm-to-Table program.
The Neenan Company was also recognized for its work on the Lancaster Family Health Center in Salem, Oregon as a finalist in the GIVE category, recognizing the comprehensive medical, dental and social services provided by the nonprofit organization to patients throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“The Neenan Company is honored to be recognized for its forward-thinking and innovative work in the emerging trend of adaptive reuse projects,” said David Shigekane, president of The Neenan Company. “Both of these renovation projects helped clients find creative, efficient and sustainable real estate solutions.”
Image of CECFC, courtesy of Kyla Chambers Photography, courtesy of the Neenan Company.