Brain Storming Brain Spaces

Brain storming about school design with BrainSpaces, an architectural consulting firm that specializes in learning environments; That's what's been going on at the Casper Event Center as Natrona County School District moves forward with three high school construction projects.

Brain Spaces, founder, Amy Yurko is facilitating this community charrette design process that the district calls "Create the Future." Its the future of high school education in Natrona County and there were around 100 participants including staff, students, parents, community members and architectural firms.

"This is one of the best turn outs that I've seen and I consult all over the world. This is one of the best turnouts for a high school project of this kind. So it's really impressive and it's not just people showing up it's people digging in and participating."

Yurko  is also a licensed architect and educator. Her consulting firm applies current research on how people learn to the process of creating learning spaces. The charrettes are looking at all three Natrona County projects; the renovation of Natrona County High School, Kelly Walsh, and the construction of a third campus. These first two days she says they're considering the big picture.

"This first charrette is about looking at high school education in Casper, the wider picture. At the end of the month we'll come back and we'll start talking about some of the individual characteristics of each site, but right now we're thinking of it as a continuum."

Five different architectural firms are involved.

The primary three are from out of state. With two local firms acting in support.

The Wyoming legislature made available 9.8 million for planning and design of the three projects.

In the end, the district may spend up to 250 million on these three major high school construction projects.