The new Homyak PK-8 school is located in the Sweetgrass neighborhood of Dacono, Colorado. The design of this 12-acre site draws from the existing neighborhood, and pays homage to the agrarian history of the region. The site provides a diverse student experience by offering safe outdoor spaces for active play, room for large group gatherings, and small social and creative play spaces. A diverse plant palette adorns the play areas, creating pollinating butterfly gardens, educational rain gardens, and playful grass berms surrounded by deciduous shade trees. The Early Childhood Education playground includes various musical instruments for learning, as well as a hand-crafted dragonfly bench tucked under a custom shade structure. The elementary students also have many dynamic forms of play, ranging from climbing and spinning pieces to more quiet seating areas with flagstone steppers and sandstone boulders. An outdoor boulder classroom faces a large turf multi-use athletic field with the Rocky Mountain range framed in the distance. Areas for outdoor dining also provide a variety of seating from café tables to benches and board formed finished seat walls. Bus drop-off/pick-up, parent drop-off/pick-up and parking are all separated, providing safe vehicular circulation for the site.
To learn more about the architecture services Hord Coplan Macht provided for this project, click here.