APS Adobe Acres Elementary

This project is a kindergarten addition to the Adobe Acres Elementary School’s campus in Albuquerque. Currently, all of the kindergarten classes are held in portable structures. The addition will allow for the elimination of those portables. RMKM’s design includes seven new kindergarten classrooms and one art & music classroom situated in a Vee-shape. The orientation establishes a secure, quad-like space in the center of campus, while also creating a street façade along Camino Del Valle SW. Circulation happens under deep overhangs along the interior of each wing which eliminates the need for interior corridors. The roof overhangs, along with the brick along the outer walls of each wing, help to tie in with the design of the existing campus buildings. Ample amounts of glazing on the interior sides of the wings give each classroom daylighting and views to the playground throughout the school day.

The roof overhangs also delineate the meeting place of the two wings, and act as both the main entrance to the building and an outdoor gathering space. The art and music room is designed to be a celebrated space and so it deviates from the rest of the building with its large volume space, canted outer wall, and standing seam metal cladding. An all glazed northeast façade opens out onto a covered outdoor stage and an amphitheater sunken into the site.