The Boulder Valley (Colorado) district has completed construction of a new building for New Vista High School in Boulder.
The Daily Camera reports that students have started the spring semester in a new, 74,830-square-foot building.
For about 20 years, the alternative high school has been housed in a 1952 former middle school building. The modern faclity replacing it has been designed to reflect New Vista's programs and goals.
The new building includes a variety of small, flexible spaces, from more traditional rooms to seating nooks tucked in walls to a large commons area filled with tables and booths. Large windows throughout showcase the foothills on one side and the University of Colorado Boulder on the other.
New Vista is projected to be one of the most energy-efficient in the district. The new building is projected to use just under 40% of the energy consumed by the existing building thanks to more efficient building systems and materials.
A wellness room, dubbed The Nest, is already outfitted with furniture to give students space to decompress, and a makerspace will be equipped later this spring.
Now that students are in the new building, the plan is to demolish the old building in the spring. Finally, from May through September, the district will complete site work that includes landscaping and a new synthetic turf field.
Most of the money for the new building’s $51.8 million budget is from the district’s $350 million capital construction bond issue approved by voters in 2022; about $11 million came from a 2014 bond issue. Infrastructure improvements to the school originally were included in 2014, but were put on hold to explore rebuilding it, instead.
