Community Within a School: An Redevelopment Opportunity Study
Student Researcher: Carrie Briscoe

Link to Capstone Poster      
Link to Executive Summary 

Saddled with crumbling facilities and escalating operating costs on an already-constrained budget, the client, Space Inc, and the Clear Creek School District seek to understand if a vacant school can regain its position as a community hub that fills the gaps in unmet community needs through an adaptive reuse project. The “Community within a School” concept infers there is an opportunity for the Idaho Springs community as well as the school district to realize broader community goals and objectives within this existing building and site. A primary objective for this project is predicated on creating access to services that contribute to and foster a vibrant and self-sufficient rural community. Through this redevelopment opportunity study, the client can glean best practices for adaptive reuse and see how other communities have reimagined old school buildings; learn the community's top needs; and, receive recommendations for how the building and site can be reprogrammed to start meeting those needs.