Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center

Colorado Academy (CA) is an independent Pre-K -12 college preparatory day school founded in 1906. The school is located on a rural, 94-acre campus in Southwest Denver with a total student population of roughly 1,000 students across all grades. Each school division, Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, has its own building on the campus, with shared facilities for all dining, library, athletic and arts spaces. SAR+ completed a Master Plan for the site before proceeding with individual building design solutions.

The Ponzio Arts Center, the campus’ multi-discipline arts hub, has evolved over the years from a dormitory building, to a cramped arts space, and then into its current expansion and function. Colorado Academy’s students and faculty have embraced its role as a multi-disciplinary art building and it has become an important center of student life.

For the project, the team focused on preserving the existing structure while providing new, state-of-the-art galleries, studios, and senior student laboratories in a modern addition. The design approach focused on providing large expanses of northern light, appropriate to the building’s function, and developing a new, welcoming public interface with the rest of the campus.

Ponzio Arts Center Diagram
Ponzio Arts Center
The Senior Studio is bracketed by the existing building (right) and new addition (left).
Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center
Lower studio clerestory windows provide sneaky views and borrowed light from the gallery above.
Ponzio Arts Center
The new western addition features a gallery that opens to an outdoor patio, which fronts the campus quad, activating the campus core and putting activity in and around the art center on display.
Ponzio Arts Center
New studios are filled with abundant north light and the expansive campus environment.
Ponzio Arts Center
Ponzio Arts Center
Lower studios open to a northern art terrace where students can work and play outdoors.

The SAR+ team has been an invaluable partner for our organization over these last several years. From visioning, to fundraising, to implementation, they are consistently invested in this monumental undertaking for our school week in and week out.

Mike Davis, Head of School
Colorado Academy