School Description
Crofton Elementary School is located at 2409 Arapahoe Street on the Northeast edge of Downtown Denver. The school re-opened its doors on September 5, 2000, introducing the Polaris Program, which is dedicated to meeting the needs of highly gifted and high achieving students, grades first through fifth. This is the first time a program such as this has operated in an independent site in the Denver Public School.
Learning Landscapes Description
One of the top academic elementary schools in Denver, the plan for this magnet school was creating a welcoming environment for children bused from other neighborhoods while addressing the large homeless and underserved populations characteristic of the neighborhood.
University Prep (Formerly Crofton Elementary)
Construction Date
August 2002
Landscape Architect
GPD Land Design
Master Plan
Vision
To create a playground that is as much about learning and education as is inside the classroom. Also, to create such a place that is an inviting environment for both the students and surrounding neighborhoods that celebrates its long-standing place in the community and city.
Goals
- For the playground to facilitate learning, yet remain fun for the kids
- Create spaces that are non-programmed -Vary the landscape (levels) -Kids want places to “hide, investigate, disappear, discover, climb in, on, and under” -Vary the materiality throughout
- Improve overall feeling of playground -make it open at all hours instead of just during school hours (community playground) -Redesign the existing picnic/shaded area so that it is more centrally located and accessible to the children and neighborhood residents -create an entry point or gateway that pulls people into the site
- Improve existing site conditions -Get rid of stickers in grass on soccer field -Examine sprinkler system and make repairs as needed -Educate maintenance on how to maintain healthy, green grass -Replace sod if necessary
Design Development
Description
UCD’s playground design concept for Crofton is predicated on our night sky: as Polaris is the center of our night sky, so it becomes the center of this playground.
Illustrative Drawing
Design Development Drawings
Illustrative Plan
Construction Documentation
Description from Architect
Project Description: A neglected, trash-ridden landscape surrounded Crofton, one of Denver’s oldest and most strongly urban schools. Recently re-opened as a magnet school, Crofton previously operated the Polaris Program (now at Ebert) for gifted and high-achieving students. The new campus design for this specialized school reflects the Polaris program mission: strong academic emphasis integrally paired with the arts. Unique to this project was the active and intense participation by the staff, parents, and students at Crofton Elementary. Parent artists conducted extensive workshops in the classrooms to design, create, and install the tiling and kinetic sculptures at this school.
Conceptual Plan: UCD’s playground design concept for Crofton is predicated on our night sky: as Polaris is the center of our night sky, so it becomes the center of this playground. This concept was developed into strongly arced lines that reflect the stars’ changing positions as we orbit the sun and that organize the playground elements. Traditional play equipment and blacktop commingle with a plaza, gardens, quiet gathering spaces, boulders, and shady groves. The marriage of art and knowledge, so strong in the curriculum, is manifest in the wind-driven kinetic sculpture, colorful seasonal tile, and the large, sculptural sundial. These elements, paired with the site’s monumental shade structure and gateway, anchor Crofton Elementary as a new landmark – a landmark for both the students and the larger community.
Results: Crofton Elementary was transformed from a neighborhood afterthought to its rightful status as neighborhood landmark. This school campus/neighborhood park is withstanding the tests of an urban school. Vandalism is low; use is high. The project was completed summer, 2002.
Illustrative Plan
Construction Drawings
Play Equipment
Shade Structure