Aspen Community School has occupied its rural site since 1972, enjoying expansive mountain views. Forty years later, the school earned a BEST Grant and raised funds to replace failing existing structures and better support its educational goals.

Cuningham, in collaboration with Studio B Architects, designed the new school buildings and renovated the campus for better circulation and increased student safety. The new K-8 and gym buildings deliver high performance educational environments with significantly improved thermal comfort and connections to the outdoors. In pursuit of LEED Gold certification, these two spaces were designed with the 2030 Challenge goals of energy-use reduction. Materials and systems were specified for health, durability, recyclability, renewability, locality, and environmentally conscious manufacturing. High efficiency HVAC, plumbing, electrical, lighting, and control systems serve the new buildings, including heat recovery units for energy savings and LED light fixtures for efficiency and long life allows students to more readily share, collaborate, and make many of their own choices in order to create the best possible individual learning environment.