The Lamar Station Classroom in Colorado offers locals a space for urban-farming education

Located in Lakewood, Colorado, the Lamar Station Classroom is a communal outdoor classroom for teaching residents about urban farming, while also providing space for environmental education and youth programs. Designed by Denver-based ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, and Fort Collins-based Structuralist as structural engineer, the project won a merit award in the AISC's 2017 IDEAS2 Awards. Other winning projects included NBBJ's Samsung American HQ and the Eric Owen Moss-designed Pterodactyl Office.

The Classroom required an opaque wall to preserve the privacy of a classroom, which is near a path leading to the light-rail line. The design team met this requirement by using vertically oriented steel bar grate cladding.  “In this case the skin is structural, providing dynamic transparency as well as support for the majority of the structure's gravity loads.”

“[The project has] An ingenious use of steel for an enclosure that simultaneously obscures and reveals its contents,” commented April Y. Wang, a structural engineering master’s student at the Purdue University Bowen Laboratory, and the engineering student juror in the competition.

Project details:
Owner: Metro West Housing Solutions, Lakewood, Colo.
General Contractor and Architect: ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, Denver
Structural Engineer: Structuralist, Ft. Collins, Colo.