An abandoned hillside campus for a Travis County State School overlooking the Colorado river was transformed into the new 20-acre home for a K-8 charter school based on outdoor and project-based learning. Eight 1970’s-era brick buildings were gutted and creatively renovated into “tree house” classroom buildings and other school facilities on a very tight budget and schedule. The design-build-owner team collaborated extensively to re-purpose existing elements and draw from the combined school community to produce art tile mosaics, furnishings from salvaged materials, and large farm-style gardens and orchard.