FAMILY LEARNING CENTER MULTI-PURPOSE BUILDING

February 20, 2017
Family Learning Center

The Family Learning Center is one of Boulder’s most valuable and least well known non-profits. Over the last 34 year FLC has supported thousands of Boulder’s under-served children and families with essential programs like cooking classes (including vegetables grown in their garden!), community health screenings, physical fitness, arts classes, community meeting rooms and a safe after-school social space.

In the summer of 2015, we were contacted by FLC booster & Chamber of Commerce President, John Tayer. He asked us to help FLC; the Center had been working with a Denver Architect and contractor, and things hadn’t gone well. The project had collapsed and they were at risk of losing the major grants from the City of Boulder that would enable them to build a desperately needed 1500 s.f. multi-purpose Health & Wellness Education Center. Principal Scott Rodwin and Project Manager Jose Fernando Gonzalez redesigned the building from scratch to dramatically reduce the budget while simultaneously improving the view, the passive solar orientation, and the natural light into existing building. We then asked our friend Sandy Weeks, President of Blue Spruce Construction, to partner with us in offering pro bono services to get the project back on track. Other community members including FLC Board Members, CCM construction, Melton Construction and Rotary Club contributed significantly to the project. It was amazing to see how the community all pulled together to make this building a reality. We were recently honored to attend the Grand Opening of the new Center.

One of the particularly fun details of the project was the creation of FLC’s new donor wall (recognizing supporters). Typically, donor walls are created by engraving donor’s names onto bricks or plaques, but these are expensive and often uninspired. Dan Brannon in our office designed and fabricated a laser-cut “giving tree” made from plywood. The leaves represent individual donors and can continue to fill the wall for years to come. FLC still needs your help. Click here to donate. Please help this little tree to grow.

Family Learning Center
Family Learning Center

In Architecture