A Hub for Learning and Community
Client:
Farmington Central CUSD #265

Farmington Central Elementary School Library Renovation

The Farmington Central Elementary School needed a library and computer lab renovation to bring their facilities into the 21st century. The school wanted to update their outdated spaces into an exciting hub for students to read, explore, research, create, and connect.

During planning for the Library, the school began “low to no-cost” improvements by rebranding classroom entry portals with inspiring, age-appropriate colors. This set the tone for the joyful, inviting atmosphere that extended to the Library renovation.

Library Renovations Make Way For New Makerspace

The focus of the renovation was the Library and an abandoned Computer Lab. By opening up the walls, more natural light flooded in from a nearby courtyard. A dedicated Makerspace was also created for hands-on learning, incorporating elements that showcased the rural community’s rich local history.

Designed For Many Learning Styles

The new Library and Makerspace facilitate many modes of learning, including small group collaboration, project-based learning, STEM education, art and design, play-based learning, and student presentations.

Technology was seamlessly integrated throughout for easy-access to resources. The stack area of the Library supports independent study, small group work, one-on-one learning with teachers, mobile computer use, social-emotional learning, and storytelling.

The Large Group Presentation Area enables small group work, lectures, team teaching, and learning.

The Learning Stair is designed for student presentations, community-based learning, and storytelling. An outdoor Courtyard connected to the space supports small group work, naturalist and outdoor learning, and social-emotional development.

The renovations foster future-readiness, offering welcoming and engaging spaces with vibrant decor and furniture, to cultivate essential skills for today’s world.
Upon entering the Library, students find interesting and comfortable furniture to foster both independent study or collaboration. Seamless tech integration enhances the learning experience throughout.
The Makerspace, with its sliding glass wall, sparks curiosity and showcases learning, while seamlessly integrating with the Library to facilitate problem-based design processes.

Connecting To The Community

The space was designed to inspire students and highlight the local culture. Graphics reflecting the history of coal mining and agriculture in the area educate students about their community’s past. By honoring local history and culture, the new spaces help students understand their place in the world and become future-ready citizens.

The Makerspace features a sliding glass wall to put student work on display. Repurposed wood doors and abundant natural light from a courtyard help make the new space energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Varied and flexible seating options accommodate different learning and reading positions.

Mindful Design To Promote Health And Wellness

The new library and maker space were designed with student wellness in mind. Teachers wanted an open, light-filled space to reduce disruptive behavior. Research shows the benefits of color, natural light, views of nature, and flexible spaces for learning, health, and wellness. The renovated space supports movement and different modes of learning to benefit students’ development and daily experience at school.

The new library helps students understand their place in the world and become future-ready citizens by honoring the local history and culture.

By removing walls, the renovation project enhanced the once dark Library with natural light, fostering a physical and visual connection to an existing Courtyard.
Windows into the new Makerspace showcase the learning happening inside and usher light from the Courtyard into the space.
By removing walls, the renovation project enhanced the once dark Library with natural light, fostering a physical and visual connection to an existing Courtyard.
The mural links students to their community, emphasizing mining’s historical importance, current relevance as a local economic driver, and its evolving STEM-oriented future.
Repurposed wood doors and an abundance of natural light from a courtyard help make the new space energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.
Equipped with power drop-downs, a 3D printer, ample storage, and a cleanup sink, the Makerspace optimizes problem-based learning, fostering student creativity and practical solutions.
The Learning Stair is designed for student presentations, community-based learning, and storytelling.
The project graphics were designed to blend fun and education, highlighting agriculture’s importance in the community while helping students contextualize their place in this world.
The library’s mural provokes an understanding of agriculture’s historical and current economic significance for the community, narrating a familiar yet often unexplored story for students.
The space is equipped with a wide variety of ergonomic seating options for sitting (varied heights), lying down, reclining, standing, and reading in nook-like enclosures.
The easily adaptable learning environment features furniture that’s easy to move, catering to a diverse assortment of student projects.
Built-in bench seating provides novel alternative areas for learning inside the space.
The Large Group Presentation Area enables team/group work, lectures, team teaching, and learning.

Related Works

Other stunning projects for our amazing clients

Master Facilities Plan serves as a guide for assessing the need for facility improvements and capital investments to implement them
Community-Centric School Renovations & Addition
Educating the Future Manufacturing and Technology Workforce
Inclusive Adaptive Reuse
A Hub for Learning and Community
Future-Ready and Net Zero STEM Spaces
Revitalizing Creativity: Culinary and Fashion Interior Renovations to Empower Next-Gen Innovators
Developing Career Skills in a Future-Ready Learning Environment
Ignite Creativity with a Student-Centric Approach to Design Thinking
New Elementary School Designed for Anywhere, Anytime Learning
New Elementary School designed to make learning more flexible
New Early Learning Center is Child-Centered, Nature-Inspired, and Energy Efficient
Changes at Nearly 100 Year Old High School Create a 21st Century Education Environment
New Nature-Inspired Playground
Addition provides much needed space for vibrant Fine Arts programs
Making a Middle School
Reimagined Learning Spaces
Putting the Cool in Culinary Arts
Fieldhouse Rises from the Rubble
Transforming an Existing High School for Today’s Learners
Share Our Work