The school is housed at the Emily Griffith Campus located at 1860 Lincoln Street, along with all of Denver Public Schools administration, Emily Griffith High School, and Emily Griffith Technical College. The campus, formerly known as the Qwest and US West Wireless Building, was acquired by Denver Expeditionary School and Emily Griffith Technical College in 2012 in order to consolidate administrative offices and relocate the Emily Griffith Technical College (which resided on a prime location near the Denver Convention Center, and which was sold). Completed in 1964, the building is over 189 feet tall, with 14 boxy stories of metal and glass and nearly 325,000 square feet of interior floor space and reflective exterior facades perched on distinctive concrete stilts. Denver’s school district purchased the building for over $19 million, but plans to save millions in just a few years by consolidating many academic needs into one location.

Here is an image of the Downtown Denver Expeditionary School, courtesy of Doors Open Denver.

2015-3-21-Denver-Expeditionary-School

The Downtown Denver Expeditionary School is an elementary school serving the children of families who live and work downtown, founded courtesy of collaboration amongst numerous community groups and the Downtown Denver Partnership. It is the first public elementary school in over 100 years in downtown Denver, and its creation speaks to the 2007 renovation of the Denver Plan calling for high quality schools in the city core. Emily Griffith, a part of DPS, was founded in 1916 and serves as many as 9,000 students in its trade and technical schools, English as a Second Language courses, high-school equivalency study courses, and adult-education classes.

This building preview is part of DenverUrbanism’s special countdown series to Doors Open Denver 2015. Click here for more information on Doors Open Denver.