Cherry Creek Innovation Campus

Centennial, Colorado Cherry Creek School District

The new Cherry Creek Innovation Campus expands career and technical program opportunities and serves as a college and career readiness hub for 11th and 12th grade students across the Cherry Creek School District. DLR Group’s design incorporates critical input from business partners who established baseline needs and space parameters to deliver authentic learning environments for seven relevant career pathways that support the local and regional economy. In addition to onsite instruction at CCIC, students are also afforded internships and apprenticeships in a variety of career fields. The campus includes a variety of instructional, lab, and social spaces where students can work in teams or individually on assigned tasks as they progress through their chosen career pathway. High-bay labs provide flexible learning spaces for experimentation and exploration, some with direct access to sheltered outdoor work areas. The heart of the campus is the i-Commons, where career pathways converge. The i-commons brings together all campus users by encouraging interaction and intentional collisions between students, educators, and industry partners.

The 117,000 SF Cherry Creek Innovation Campus is a direct result of Cherry Creek 2021, the district’s community engagement process conducted in advance of the November 2016 bond referendum. The outcome of that process is the understanding that the district must prepare students differently as they enter the future workforce. The 42-acre site, featuring rolling hills and a deep arroyo, allows for further programmatic expansion and addition of other buildings and facilities. Spaces include high/low intensity labs and classrooms, i-commons/social spaces, culinary lab and café, small and large collaboration and project areas, and exterior work yards. The façade features masonry and metal panel, including areas of distinctive ‘Cherry Red’, to reinforce district branding. The campus is located on 40 prominent acres in Dove Valley nearby the Denver Broncos training facility and is bordered by East Broncos Parkway and South Chambers Road.

Completed: June 2019

Size: 117,000 SF

Construction Cost: $45,067,091

Services: Architecture, Engineering, Planning, Interior Design, Branding/Signage

Relevant Team Members: Greg Cromer, Carmen Wyckoff, David Schmidt

Delivery Method: CM at Risk