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ALEXANDER
DAWSON SCHOOL
AT RAINBOW MOUNTAIN (PHASE I)
lAS VEGAS, NEVADA
Photography:
Opulence Studios
The Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain is located on 35 acres at the entrance to the Red Rock National Park. The campus setting clusters four buildings into a student friendly environment: the Lower School, the Middle School, the Shared Spaces Building and the Gymnasium.
Each building is inspired by natural forms and carefully scaled to nurture the students who will use the facilities. All the classrooms have soaring ceilings and large windows to the learning gardens, but each adjusted to the specific requirements to enrich the students as each one passes from Kindergarten through the eighth grade.
The landscape of the campus is used as outdoor educational areas. The site is divided into the four desert regions: the Great Basin region, the Chihauhaun region, the Mojave Desert region, and the Sonoran Desert region. Each area is planted to reflect the four main climatic regions of the Desert Southwest.
The use of masonry for Alexander Dawson was an easy, logical choice for both aesthetic and economic reasons.
One of the design requirements for the project was to marry the building to the surroundings. Mimicking the color stratifications of the surrounding mountain range was easily accomplished with the range of available split face and smooth face CMU’s in colors of Buckskin, Mandarin, Orange and Buff.
Another aesthetic benefit of using masonry is that unlike drywall, masonry is integrally colored and therefore more forgiving to chips, scratches and dings, minimizing wear and tear and maintenance.
The use of masonry also resulted in economic advantages. The durability of the masonry has a direct and positive affect on the ongoing maintenance and operations of the school. In addition, the materials were produced locally, encouraging the local job market and meeting LEED-qualifying requirements. The use of masonry is especially budget-friendly when compared to the rising costs of steel.
ARCHITECT:
KGA Architecture
4495
S. Polaris Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89103-4119
James
C. Lord II, AIA
Design Architect
Mark
S. Danley, AIA
Project Architect
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER:
Bennett
& Jimenez
GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
Korte
Bellow & Associates
MASONRY CONTRACTOR:
Apple
Masonry
BLOCK PRODUCER:
Rinker
Materials
OWNER:
Alexander Dawson Foundation
