The International School of Denver (ISDenver), located in Denver’s Lowry neighborhood, is an inclusive multicultural, multilingual International Baccalaureate World School offering an inquiry-based approach to dual-immersion teaching. The school touts world-class academics, with an immersive culture and community in the heart of Denver. Students in preschool through 8th grade receive a broad and balanced curriculum in Chinese, French, and Spanish target languages, solidified by a strong English foundation that increases through middle school.
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International School of Denver Academic Building
Educational Architecture Built
Firm
Venture Architecture
Architect/Designer
Martin Goldstein
Design Team
Venture Architecture
Location
Denver, CO
Country
United States
Photographer/Copyright
©Venture Architecture
In addition to several small improvement projects, Venture Architecture completed the school’s most recent Master Plan and designed their new academic building, the Mary Louise Evans Building.
Venture was commissioned in 2016 to develop the school’s Master Plan in an effort to support future growth and revitalize the ISDenver campus. Venture’s approach cast a wide net as they sought to understand current conditions and offer ideal solutions. The concept that was borne out of their process lays the path for a campus that is tailored to the school’s educational approach and commitment to bilingual, global citizens.
In late 2021, ISDenver announced the grand opening of its newest academic facility, the Mary Louise Evans Building. Designed in close coordination with the school’s community, the new 40,000-square-foot facility serves as a hub for the entire ISDenver community, providing a new Learning Center as well as a Music, Art, Science, and Maker’s Lab, and an array of faculty and parent volunteer spaces. To effectively design a facility that would serve the entire community and maximize collaboration among faculty and students alike, Venture’s team engaged in an extensive discovery process, meeting at the school with teachers and parents during more than thirty open forums to understand how the school used current space for teaching and learning and to explore new space designs that might better meet their goals.
Through this process, Venture’s design team homed in on the school’s project-based learning styles and ultimately utilized an age-appropriate approach to educational workplace strategies and adapted research available to other design sectors. The resulting academic building blends a variety of flexible learning spaces that support the school’s project-based teaching, learning, and collaborating model.
“Completing this design for ISDenver was particularly meaningful for our team because of how closely we were able to work with faculty and parents, which led us to the amazing quality of the spaces that are opening today,” said Martin Goldstein, principal of Venture Architecture. “Their transparency, and commitment to the students and their programming was incredible. That provided the clarity we needed to design architecture that attentively reflects and supports the school’s best vision for its future.”