North High School is Denver’s oldest and grandest High School. Set at the crest of a hill in Northwest Denver, North High shares a site of approximately 34 acres with Valdez Elementary School. The site affords a panoramic view of downtown Denver. The challenge of this project was to facilitate the transformation of the current campus to meet the educational needs of the next 100 years and support, through innovative site planning and architecture, the process of academic reform already underway at North High School. The end goal was to make the North/Valdez campus a model of performance for public education in the 21st century.
The Master Plan completed by Humphries Poli Architects is the first comprehensive master plan to be undertaken by Denver Public Schools (DPS). The Master Plan establishes fundamental guiding principles, recommends actions to be taken and analyzes the educational, community and historical issues that are the driving force behind the plan’s recommendations. It treats the North and Valdez properties as a continuous unit, leveraging the potential of a continuous campus into an intentional strength.