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70 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / March 2021 F ounded in 1922, Kent Denver School excels as one the most respected and successful independent schools in thenation– so successful that the school has a 100% college acceptance rate with some stu- dents studying internationally. Much of this is due to an outstanding team of teachers, staff, students, parents and families who always strive for excellence in scholarship and character. What sometimes goes unrecognized is the role the design of the campus and its buildings play in the overall success of the people and studentswhowork and learn there. The school, located in southeast suburban Denver with plentyof openspaceandpanoramicviewsof theRockyMoun- tains, includes an extraordinary, nearly 200-acre campus with more than275,000 square feet of advanced instructional space. It inspires learning and fosters ideas and innovation by stu- dents and teachers alike. This has been especially true during the past 16-plus years as the collaboration between Kent Den- ver and Semple Brown Design enhanced the school’s learning environment through building design. The relationship began in 2004 when Kent Denver saw a need to build new space for creative endeavors and invited several firms to submit design proposals for a Student Cen- ter for the Arts. Semple Brown was selected and took on the challenge with an understanding of how to best embrace the site and incorporate the new building into the landscape to have maximum effect. More important- ly, the firmdedicated a great deal of time and attention to how the center should be designed to help the students enjoy it, benefit from it, and achieve because of it. For example, the centerwas designedwith “young voices” in mind. Students who hadn’t mastered the skill of how to project their voices to a large auditorium could feel more comfortable knowing that the 500-seat space could be divided into a smaller, less in- timidating andmore intimate space. Thispersonalizedandcollectiveapproach to the students’ education and ultimate success has carried over into more than a dozenprojects on theKent Denver cam- pus. • Middle school. The LEED Platinum Kent Denver Middle School was completed for approximately 220 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in 2018. Well before the archi- tecture or other physical aspects of the build- ing were considered, Kent Denver School’s leaders provided an extensive project brief that detailed its short- and long-term vision, goals and communi- Kent Denver School: Enriched Learning, By Design JerryWalker Associate Head of School, CFO, Kent Denver School Bryan Schmidt Principal, Semple Brown Architects and Designers David Lauer The middle school studios feature access to the outdoors and are organized around common gathering spaces that also fill multiple roles, including circulation and breakout group learning spaces.