The Neenan Company, a fully integrated design-build firm based in Colorado, has worked on several education projects in 2023. Each project fulfills community needs through renovations and replacements, transforming the schools’ operations. The Neenan Company worked diligently with each client to find efficient solutions to each challenge at hand and ensured that the space felt like an extension of the community.
The five projects deliver a design specially crafted to help each school achieve their programming goals and offer a space to students that promotes safety, wellness and opportunity.
The below 2023 projects add to Neenan’s long record of designing and building more than 32 master plans and 113 education projects.
- Peetz Plateau School District: Located in Peetz, Colorado, Neenan was hired as the design-builder for 75,000 square feet of additions and renovations to this PK-12 school. In this small town, Peetz Plateau is not only the sole education provider for this region; is truly the heart of this community. Neenan designed highly versatile spaces that serve the community’s evolving needs while keeping student safety at the forefront. For instance, they replaced the current complex hallway system with a clear-cut layout, in which you can stand in the middle of the school and be able to see down each wing, greatly increasing the building’s efficiency and safety. The building is planned to be CHPS-certified.
- Dove Creek School District: Located in the small town of Dove Creek, Colorado, this school serves 118 students and is a community gathering space. The Neenan Company began working with Dove Creek in 2021 to amend their master plan and grant applications, resulting in Dove Creek securing the BEST grant. Since then, Neenan was brought on as the design-builder and broke ground on the 30,000 square-foot replacement project this past May. The replacement of the old elementary school with a brand-new building will allow for the district administration offices to be centralized within the PK-12 Campus. The iconic library is the center point of this building and will be open to the public as well as utilized for students. The new design allows for a seamless transition between these public and private uses that maintain privacy and security for the student zones. With a CHPS certification standard, the building is heated and cooled with cutting-edge technology installed by a local mechanical group, guaranteeing easy access to upkeep.
- Colorado Early Colleges (CEC): The Neenan Company completed their third building on the Colorado Springs CEC campus this summer, bringing to fruition the final component needed for this to be the first CEC campus serving students from elementary to high school. The newest addition is a renovated 51,000 square-foot space which now hosts students from CEC’s Everest Point Homeschool Academy. Neenan transformed the building’s occupancy to make it suitable for children and incorporated a scratch kitchen to serve all students on campus. The design enables Colorado Springs CEC to start a farm-to-table program, where produce will be grown on site then served to the students.
- Greeley Key Explorers: This 5,100-square-foot adaptive reuse space was converted from a retail space to a preschool in Greeley, Colorado. This project provided the school’s first stand-alone facility, expanding the capacity for students and alleviating the ‘preschool drought’ that the city faces. The renovated building provides six classrooms, five single-user restrooms, a warming kitchen and is ADA accessible throughout the building.
- Weldon Valley School District: Located at the heart of Weldona, Colorado, the Weldon Valley School District has undergone multiple projects with The Neenan Company to make this historic building suitable for k-12 students. After adding a middle/high school wing and an elementary school wing to the building, Neenan has now secured BEST grant funding for the next phase of improvements. Upgrades will include a full-sized gym that is wheelchair accessible, an updated kitchen and a new vocational education workshop connected to the building. The building is planned to be CHPS certified.
“We are in the business of strengthening communities, and schools are fundamental to each community. It is our honor to use our expertise to enhance the safety, wellbeing and opportunities for the students of each of our projects,” said David Kurtz, senior architect at Neenan. “We believe that it is critical to build with our hearts, taking the time to view each of these communities as an extension of our own. With this, we find holistic solutions that are both efficient and help each school operate at their highest potential.”
Education projects bring their own unique set of challenges as they are a major community staple. The design-build firm contributes a comprehensive review and multi-disciplinary expertise that saves clients time and money in vetting opportunities and enables efficiencies throughout every stage of the project without compromising quality. The result of this expertise is that each school is met where they are at, and presented with solutions that help them to better serve their students.
