Serving Children in Rural New Mexico

Building Education for the Next Generation

Since 1935, the Pueblo Pintado Community School has served families living on the Navajo Reservation on the Colorado Plateau by providing education for kindergarten through eighth grade students. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was in need of new facilities to replace the previous school building constructed in 1962. A dormitory was also needed to house children during the school week who live beyond the service area covered by commuting school buses. Pueblo Pintado (population 247) is in the rural northwest New Mexico desert located over 100 miles from Albuquerque, the nearest metropolitan city.

Project Details

On an 80 acre campus Boland built a 92,230 square foot school, 21,220 square foot, 100 bed dormitory, and all supporting infrastructure including a 150,000 gallon elevated water tower, on-site sewage treatment, and a glycol closed loop geothermal HVAC system. The school building has two wings that group classrooms together by age with shared facilities in the central area. The school has a gymnasium, media center, and dining facility supported by a commercial kitchen capable of serving over 400 meals at a time. The dormitory building is laid out in a quad configuration so that there are separate areas for each gender and age group of students. Each quadrant has its own living room, study room, laundry facilities, and restrooms.

Sustainability

Both facilities were designed to obtain LEED® Silver certification with the U.S. Green Building Council, but due to our diligent efforts, the sustainability goals were exceeded and the project achieved LEED® Gold certification at no additional cost to the client.