Building the future of learning.
When the West Des Moines Community School District noticed a decline in enrollment in their Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, they sought to revitalize the program by creating a state-of-the-art addition at the Valley Southwoods Freshman Building—one of six facility upgrades to the school district’s overarching improvement plan. The expansion provides hands-on learning environments for emerging technology, robotics, woodworking and culinary arts. A separate addition near the entrance of the building and adjacent to existing food service includes a culinary arts lab that features a teaching kitchen and six practice kitchens. Additionally, the expansion was designed for students and the broader community, with spaces available for after-hours programs, career training, and public culinary classes.
The addition also enhances the school’s exterior aesthetics, modernizing the facility with an updated architectural design. The building shell consists of architectural insulated wall panels with formliner accentuation that features two distinct colors—a dark gray mix paired with bright-colored Nawkaw staining. As part of city requirements, a portion of the prefabricated addition doubles as an ICC-500-rated storm shelter, utilizing a total precast design that incorporates double tees and walls.
Smarter building with prefabrication.
With multiple projects simultaneously occurring across the district, the design team wanted a building solution that offered consistent quality and efficiency. Addressing concerns regarding local masonry labor market availability, prefabrication allowed for year-round manufacturing in a controlled environment, reliable quality control compared to on-site masonry, and faster installation that minimized disruptions to school operations during the winter months.
Flexible, open learning environments.
The district recognized that CTE needs would shift over time. To address this, flexible lab spaces were created to accommodate future courses. Overhead garage doors allow for easy movement of large equipment and future expansion of hands-on learning activities. Each garage door has a second-layer storm door, which can be deployed to convert the space into a storm shelter. This design ensures a bright, open learning environment on sunny days while providing protection during severe weather.
By leveraging prefabricated construction, the Valley Southwoods Freshman CTE addition delivers a high-performance, adaptable facility that meets current and future educational needs while ensuring resilience, efficiency and community integration.
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