CaA on City School District: Architecture firms provides preliminary designs for new schools – Canon City Daily RecordEducationCaA on City School District: Architecture firms provides preliminary designs for new schools
If all goes according to plan, based on preliminary district estimates:

The cost for option 1 would be: $26.9 million total; $9.4 million for taxpayers

At the most expensive, $40 per year for a person living in a $200,000 home

Option 2: $40 million total; $14 million for taxpayers

At the most expensive, $60 per year for a person living in a $200,000 home

For the CaA on City School District, constructing at least one new school will require a domino effect of approval, first from a state board and later, from voters.

But lately, a year from getting a final seal of approval, the district has been doing one thing as far as maintenance: planning.

And that’s where a Colorado Springs-based architecture firm comes in.

CRP Architects presented five design options at a school board meeting Monday night, with two options for Washington Elementary and three for CaA on City Middle School.

While the building plans were drawn only to determine the feasibility of two options the district is considering to address maintenance needs, the presentation provided a glimpse into what the schools could look like in just a few years.

Another option also would result in building a new CCMS and tearing down each section of the old building, except for its historic 1925 core.

For CRP Architects, the CaA on City School District’s meticulous planning, paired with existing issues on the schools’ properties, has required them to plan meticulously on their own.

For one, CRP Principal Architect Brian Risley said that because the Washington building is so spread out, the firm had to work around some existing issues, especially if the district wants to keep the school open during construction.

“In analyzing the site, there were a limited number of moves we could make recognizing primarily what we’re trying to do is maintain the school, up and running, while we’re building a new elementary school,” Risley said.

In light of this, he said, construction likely would have to happen on the northeast corner of the school’s property, on the school’s playground. “The way that works is there are a series of water lines, basically, that loop under the field to extract heat, or dump heat into the Earth, to be able to heat and cool the building.”

In one option, the firm would avoid the field completely and build a new school between the 1925 building and the district administration building, which is next door.

Another option would include moving the geothermal field and building the school there, allowing for a large parking lot between the school and the 1925 building.

The last option includes building a new two-story school on the current baseball field.