CREJ - Journal

/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / MARCH 2015

onstructed of local sandstone masonry

and poised on top of a hill dotted with

centenarian silver maple trees, the Ma-

pleton Early Childhood Center in Boul-

der remains a contributing building within the

Mapleton Hill Historic District and carries with it

vast historic significance. Until its renovation and

repurposing, Mapleton was a K-5 neighborhood

school.

In 2003, the cost of maintaining the 114-year-old

school – combined with declining enrollment – led

to the school’s closure. The old beauty sat unoccu-

pied for 10 years, incurring moisture damage, peeling

paint and plaster, and an accumulation of insects and

bats.

How the historic Mapleton School was preserved

and repurposed into a districtwide preschool is a story

of perseverance, cooperation and the convergence of

many players and multiple issues. For the architects,

adding the layers of public process, funding, building

consensus and community was a mind-boggling puz-

zle.

City of Boulder Human Services spearheaded the

formation of a diverse group of stakeholders named

“The Mapleton Early Childhood Coalition” in 2007. The

coalition earmarked money for a feasibility study that

would explore converting Mapleton to an early child-

hood facility. It hired Alan Ford Architects to do the

assessment.

After Ford spent two years working with engineers

to study the building’s historic preservation and ren-

ovation needs, costs and environmental goals, Boulder

Valley School District then asked Ford for a schematic

design withmore detail. The model would be to repur-

pose Mapleton for ECE.

Serendipitously, in 2010, the district passed amill levy

override that would fund select early childhood edu-

cation programs at strategic locations across Boulder

Valley – and RTA Architects had just completed an as-

sessment that evaluated all existing district elementary

Doug

Abernathy, AIA

Principal,

RTA

Architects