K-12 – CSO

Noblesville High School

With school enrollment at full capacity – and projected to remain so for many years to come – the expansion and renovation addresses general capacity needs while supporting the district’s nationally recognized STEM and performing arts programs.

A 70,000 square foot academic addition includes 22 new classrooms, construction and welding labs, STEM maker space, new student café, and a large group gathering space. 37,000 square feet of renovations provide a larger jazz band room, a new percussion room, and an expanded choir room.

This project is the latest in CSO’s long history with Noblesville Schools. CSO previously designed Noblesville High School’s Freshman Academy in 2014, as well as numerous other projects dating back to 2012.

Silver Creek High School

Originally built in 1967 with subsequent smaller additions in the following decades, much of the building remained in its original state. While school pride and nostalgia is strong throughout the community, the building had fallen far behind the needs today’s learners.

Through an intense programming process, CSO was able to get to know the culture of the school, determine the current needs of teachers and students, and create an opportunity for the administration to dream about the future. The final solution adds much needed space for new classrooms, expanded performing arts, and a new auditorium. The new academic addition is situated across the front of the existing high school, creating a new front door and updated image for the community. The new ‘heart’ of the building is a two story ‘Student Union’ where students can spend time before, during, and after school, with learning resources and breakout spaces all around. Collaborative flex spaces and study rooms were located throughout the building to accommodate new learning styles and small group engagement. Capitalizing on a desire to expand elective course offerings, new specialty areas were added to accommodate TV/Radio, Project Lead the Way (PLTW), Culinary Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Art programs. CSO created a unique sense of place throughout the interior with touches of orange and blue ensuring there would no question you were at Silver Creek High School.

Throughout this project there was emphasis on making sure ‘we do things the right way’, while maintaining a focus on budget and the many other needs beyond the High School building. CSO is humbled to be chosen to help steward SCSC through this process and provide a truly transformational project for this community that will impact students for decades to come.

Tri-North Middle School

Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) identified the need to replace the aging Tri-North Middle School. CSO and BrainSpaces, an expert in brain-based educational planning and design, led a visioning and programming process that enabled CSO to design a new building tailored to the specific needs and vision of Tri-North students, teachers, and administrators.

The building layout utilizes next generation learning elements including an open media center, collaboration spaces, and small group rooms throughout the building. Teachers and administrators expressed the need for spaces to be flexible and adaptable to a rapidly changing educational world. CSO’s design addresses the need for flexibility by implementing features such as the use of operable theater seating in the Performance / Large Group Instruction space, operable partitions in Science and STEM labs, and spaces that are planned to facilitate the use of both departmental and interdisciplinary teaching models.

MCCSC also emphasized the need for sustainable design considerations which were implemented with plans for a geothermal system, solar array on the gym roof, and use of local materials and native plants. The new Tri-North Middle School has become a crown jewel for this Bloomington community.

Brownsburg Senior Academy & Fieldhouse

Originally designed by CSO in 2009, the Senior Academy now enters a new phase, with updated spaces that reflect evolving student needs and learning styles.

The project enhances the upper-grade student experience through new classrooms, a vibrant student commons, a science lab, and updated offices for academic teams and athletics. A modern 500-seat cafeteria offers flexible dining options, including a grab-and-go quick service food option to better serve students on the move.

This renovation complements the firm’s extensive updates to other portions of the high school completed in 2020, advancing a cohesive, student-centered vision across the entire campus.

A new, prominent student entrance anchors the addition, creating a welcoming arrival point and reinforcing the Senior Academy’s role as a central hub for student life. Site enhancements not only improve functionality and traffic flow but also contribute to a more cohesive and student-friendly campus experience.

The project also included an expansive new, state-of-the-art fieldhouse to accommodate Brownsburg High School’s extensive athletic programs. The 80,000 sf fieldhouse features four full-sized basketball courts; an 8-lane, 200-meter indoor track; bleachers; and dedicated areas for long jump, pole vault, and high jump events.

Additional new and renovated athletic support spaces, include: a new home football locker room, basketball locker room, track and physical education locker rooms, a cardio/fitness room, batting cages, golf simulator, training room with a hydrotherapy tub, and other support spaces. These transformational new spaces are designed to meet the needs of modern athletic programming and student wellness while showcasing the school’s brand and identity.

Park Tudor Wellness Center

The new Irsay Family Sports Center for Health and Wellness includes a fieldhouse, auxiliary gym, multipurpose studio, weight and cardio fitness room, seminar classroom, and community spaces for students to gather. Activities in the building are intentionally displayed to encourage interaction, communication, and wellness on campus. The building design incorporates limestone, metal panel, and wood elements in keeping with the existing campus. The new wellness center replaces an existing sports facility and opened in 2021. CSO partnered with Lake Flato on this exciting project.

Carmel & Clay Center Elementary Schools

In 2018 Carmel Clay Schools (CCS) began the process of evaluating their projected enrollments and addressing their aging elementary schools. The end result was the decision to replace their oldest elementary school in the heart of downtown Carmel on the same site and build a new elementary school on the West side of town.

Through evaluation of their existing facilities, user group meetings, and administrative input, CSO was able to develop a design solution personalized to the specific needs and desires of teachers, faculty, administrators, and students.

CCS wanted to retain what was good and functional about their existing facilities while also creating innovative learning environments ready for the next 50+ years of education. CCS had explored a grade level neighborhood or pod concept previously, but teachers expressed frustration with the size and ability to supervise students in these shared spaces. CSO’s design solution is five classrooms with large glass doors that open to a large commons space. Each pair of classrooms includes a shared small group room and ‘cubby alcove’ for student storage. These neighborhoods are expected to house an entire grade level and are paired in the overall layout to allow them to share a secure outdoor courtyard. At the center of the building is the ‘Discovery Center’ with overhead doors that allow students to freely access the space throughout the day. The building is designed to fit in with the surrounding neighborhood.

CCS students and staff are excited for the new opportunities these buildings create for teachers to teach and students to learn in new ways.

Parkside Elementary School

The design for the newly renovated school prioritizes flexibility, collaboration, and student well-being. Updated, highly flexible furniture allows students to choose how they engage in whole-group instruction, fostering autonomy and participation. A neutral color palette minimizes distractions, providing a backdrop for student work to take center stage.
Activity commons’ and collaborative neighborhood areas are in constant use, with activities varying by grade level. Interior glass improves visibility and allows borrowed light to brighten the space. The glass also provides thoughtful sightlines enabling teachers to supervise while granting students of all ages greater independence. Small group rooms offer quiet spaces for enrichment or remediation and can be used for focused work by students and teachers or by students on their own. The layout of the classrooms – flanking each end of the activity commons – enhances communication between teachers, fostering a more cohesive learning environment.

Large group instruction rooms can accommodate multiple groups simultaneously, promoting dynamic learning opportunities. Older students benefit from technology that supports collaboration, including the ability to cast screens to monitors. These enhancements have reshaped both teaching methods and student behavior, fostering a sense of ownership and pride in the new spaces.

In the cafeteria, replacing long, foldable tables with round tables has transformed the space into a more intimate, family-style setting. This change encourages quieter, more focused conversations and allows students across different grade levels to interact. The removal of a stage made room for additional windows, enhancing natural light and reinforcing a connection to the outdoors—something the original design lacked at eye level.

A dedicated wellness space, separate from administrative offices, ensures students seeking support from counselors or wellness specialists feel safe and comfortable. This intentional separation removes the stigma of seeking help, creating a welcoming environment for students and their families.

Cathedral High School Innovation Center

The Innovation Center strengthens the school’s commitment to a flexible and focused learning environment, emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Learning Studios. The facility’s design encourages and promotes a collaborative experience in all of the learning spaces, and provides a more open, group-oriented Science area, de-emphasizing compartmentalized education and promoting group and team learning across several disciplines. The open Science area includes several laboratories in the same space allowing a more efficient teaching model, while providing enhanced interaction.

An informal study area and open faculty areas promote additional interaction among faculty and students. The proximity and accessibility of the faculty is purposeful. However, break out rooms and small group rooms support one-on-one meetings or private conversations. The learning spaces are intentionally transparent as well as flexible in order to adapt to the changing use of the space and the continued connection to the learning environments.

The Innovation Center also contains the relocated dining and kitchen space in the lower level, allowing students a more flexible approach to food service and more options to the traditional lunch period. An additional Café allows students to utilize a “grab-n-go” concept during the day. The relocation of the campus cafeteria creates a destination for students during the course of the day, while also creating informal interaction areas in the adjacent spaces. Additionally, a new Cathedral Spirit Shop is located near the cafeteria in a prominent location for both students and visiting parents/alumni.

Architecturally, The Innovation Center creates a new “front door” to campus. The center is an addition to Kelly Hall on the courtyard between the existing Student Life Center (SLC) and Loretta Hall. The new addition incorporates a three-story open atrium between the old Kelly Hall and the architecture of the new addition. Exterior materials used on the addition are blonde brick (same used on SLC), glass, metal panel and stone veneer panels. The old limestone façade of Kelly Hall will be preserved and will be the feature of the new, glass-enclosed front entrance.

Plainfield High School

CSO was engaged to help staff and students visualize and design spaces for student collaboration, hands-on learning and their expanding performing arts programs. Through a strategic engagement process, designers gleaned invaluable insights into students needs, including an emphasis on the importance of spaces for student agency and informal gathering. The resulting design reflects a sense of place that is highly unique to Plainfield High School.

The additions and renovations address critical improvements and expansions for Science, PLTW, Band, Choir, and Orchestra programs in addition to creating a new student-centered space; ‘The Quaker Commons’. This space houses student meeting rooms, a formal presentation space, multiple innovation labs, a quiet study room, technology resource center, TV and podcast studios, and the ‘Quaker Café’ – a student run coffee shop. The area was specifically designed to create a space where students felt they belonged and could find resources to explore new subjects, technologies, and ideas.

With these additions and renovations PCSC continues its commitment to ensuring students are career, college, and life ready.

Westfield High School

When the community supported WWS in their endeavor to address growing facility needs throughout the district with approval of a referendum, the largest allocation was put toward expanding the existing high school. Administrators saw this as an opportunity to not only address the needs of growing programs and an aging building, but to transform its education model and align the built environment with their pedagogical vision.

CSO studied existing facility use and programming information to quantify space utilization and projected student and program growth. Using CSO’s data, administrators decided to make the leap to a university model of education, allowing them to increase building efficiency and maximize the use of their budget to benefit as many parts of the building and programs as possible. In addition to this shift in space usage, WHS sought to accommodate growing demand for career ready programs, provide flexible areas for student use, and create spaces where students would want to spend time. All new and renovated spaces were designed to easily adapt to future program needs by minimizing built-in fixtures and maximizing use of mobile and flexible furniture. CSO worked closely with WHS to establish an aesthetic that mirrored the new educational direction with a high-tech, industrial feel while maintaining subtle touches that are distinctly Westfield.

The collaborative process between WHS and CSO and in-depth programming was critical to the success of this project. This approach allowed WHS to accomplish so much more than a traditional approach to projected growth would have allowed. The resultant custom tailored building will better support today’s students and staff in their endeavors and allow WHS to adapt to an unknown future much more readily and rapidly.

Homestead High School

Over the last several years the administration at Southwest Allen County Schools (SACS) began to dream about making major changes at Homestead High School (HHS). Primarily a single story building, students struggled to travel from one side to another during passing periods and there were few spaces able to facilitate informal student interactions or collaborative group work.

CSO was brought on board with local architect MKM and educational consultant Brain Spaces to begin programming and planning for the future Homestead. Extensive meetings with students, staff, parents, and community members quickly revealed immense support for changes at the high school and a desire for the building to better represent and support the students who walked its hallways. The design team collaborated to maximize the amount of new space to be constructed while leveraging portions of the existing facility to reach the desired program requirements.

The resultant design will include a new two story academic wing, large student commons, 3,000 seat competition gym, and 990 seat performing arts center. Nearly 400,000 sf will be added on to the existing high school before razing roughly 350,000 sf of existing structure. The remaining 300,000 sf will be extensively renovated ensure the ‘new’ building has the same look, feel, and function throughout.

Completing a project of this scale while keeping the existing building operational during construction was a complex task requiring continued coordination between SACS, HHS, the design team, and the construction manager. The phased addition, renovation, and demolition occurred from 2020 to 2025.

Deer Creek Elementary School

The design of this new two-story K-4 elementary builds on concepts from CSO’s design of Southeastern Elementary School. While programming for this new school with HSE administrators, principals, and faculty, the design team determined the previous school design was a resounding success and very few enhancements were recommended for improvement. Daylighting and views, visibility, flexible furniture, classroom extensions, and multiple types of learning spaces are still key elements of the inquiry-based learning environment created.

Each learning neighborhood includes six studios (classrooms) and a central shared activity commons that is large enough for the entire neighborhood to gather. Also included in each neighborhood is a small STEM lab/kitchenette, three small group rooms, and three sets of student restrooms. Outdoor courtyards, patios, and rooftop terraces help bring the outdoors in and provide additional opportunity for extending the classroom outside.

Adjacent to the learning neighborhoods are instructional spaces for art and music along with a language/global studies/resource studio The close proximity between the neighborhoods and the enrichment areas provides the possibility of a flex classroom should a grade level size fluctuate and need an additional classroom.

The most central point in the building is the Discovery Center (Media Center) and support spaces. A large, two-story open area draws students into the space with various zones for gathering and reading as well as providing space for media production.

Westfield Washington Schools Aquatic Center

The facility supports the district’s swim teams and physical education classes as well as student-athletes who are recovering from injuries. The Aquatic Center also includes locker rooms, support spaces, and bleachers seating up to 650 spectators.

The Aquatic Center is managed by the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, which plans to add a 65,000 square foot addition for community use. The addition would include a wellness center, gym, and basketball courts. Community members also have access to the pool through swim lessons and open swim sessions offered by the YMCA.

Willow Lake Elementary School

CSO worked closely with Washington Township Schools’ administrators, building-level principals and faculty, and the Design Team to develop a program for a prototypical two story, K-5 elementary school with six 5-classroom learning neighborhoods, an administrative area, shared activity area, gymnasium, dining commons, discovery center, kitchen, and building support spaces.

Each learning neighborhood has a shared activity commons that is large enough for the entire neighborhood to gather and is easily accessible from each classroom. The overall layout of the learning neighborhoods creates two outdoor learning labs and an interior learning lab courtyard that are easily accessed from all learning neighborhoods and discovery center. The interior courtyard will serve as both educational outdoor space and a source of natural light for both levels.

Adjacent to the learning neighborhoods are the instructional spaces for art, world language, the project/idea lab, and a self-contained learning studio which provides the possibility of a flex classroom should a grade level size fluctuate and need an additional classroom. Music is the only enrichment activity not directly adjacent to the neighborhoods. The music lab is located adjacent to the dining commons where there is a raised platform for performances. This also provides a good separation for the higher noise levels in the music lab from the rest of the instructional spaces.

A centrally located Discovery Center has a large two-story open area for book stacks as well as a Media Production Lab.

Willow Lake Elementary School was built on the site of an existing elementary school that was completely demolished to accommodate the new school, parking, and site improvements while preserving the existing baseball diamonds and soccer field.

Guilford Elementary School

Each neighborhood cluster houses an entire grade level and radiates from the central hub of the building where a two-story Discovery Center, Art Studio, and Music Classroom are all located. Near this central hub are the cafeteria, gymnasium, and main office area within close proximity to the main entry point.

The central commons space for each neighborhood contains a STEM lab, multiple small group rooms, and a large open gathering space to accommodate as many different activities as possible. Natural daylight abounds in these spaces with direct views to the exterior from every space. CSO paid special attention to transitions of one space to other, creating lower ceiling areas of compression as a response to PCSC autism program anticipated to be housed here.

In designing this new facility, CSO explored Plainfield’s rich history and were able to implement different concepts as part of the interior color palette, materials, and wayfinding concepts. The administration emphasized the desire to create a modern building with timeless appeal while being good stewards of their communities’ investment. With this in mind CSO melded modern and traditional design concepts utilizing a masonry veneer with traditional elements juxtaposed to large windows with metal panel picture frames. The result is a modern building with classic elements that will age gracefully over the coming years.

Plainfield Community Middle School

Originating as Plainfield High School in 1956, the building has been expanded and renovated more than sixteen times over the last 60 years.

CSO’s design solution emphasized impacting learning environments, improving building circulation, and upgrading finishes, lighting, and technology throughout the building. The most dramatic change to the building is a new two-story corridor that cuts through a large portion of the existing building. This new space creates a student commons and a clear main entry for the building. The renovated media center and new STEAM focused ‘Idea Lab’ are placed directly adjacent to the student commons, helping to emphasize their importance to the school.

Classrooms were reorganized into grade level specific areas to breakdown the large footprint of the building. Designers capitalized on underutilized space throughout the building by removing walls to corridors to create shared collaboration and break out spaces for teachers to utilize throughout the day.

Various construction types and methods from multiple eras posed a unique challenge for CSO’s designers. By thinking creatively and relying on their expertise, they were able to breathe new life into this building.

Noblesville Beaver Stadium

This new facility will eliminate Noblesville’s issues of overcrowding at the district’s current stadium. The facility includes 50-percent more seating than the district’s current stadium along with locker rooms, practice fields, athletic training space, concessions, and restrooms. The stadium will be equipped with enhanced lighting and broadcast technology capabilities.

The new stadium is located behind the high school where the district’s former transportation building was located. The previous stadium will continue to be used for lacrosse, rugby, band competitions and other purposes.

Imagination Lab

Plainfield Schools sought to repurpose a 17,000 square foot natatorium into an educational facility. Their goal was to create an innovative, inspiring, hands-on learning facility branded as the “Imagination Lab”. A team of a passionate educators were assembled to work with the design team. They worked together to establish the program and over-arching goals for the facility. In order to enhance the ability of the educators to envision the space, designers used virtual reality to allow educators to be “in” the spaces and provide amazing feedback that designers were able to build upon. The resulting design created an environment to empower students to think for themselves, imagine their futures, and grow the confidence, desire, and drive it takes to change the world.

A large lab space establishes the heart of the facility with supplementary spaces for focused means and methods of learning, building, creating, inventing, and investigating. At one end, a fabrication lab with sinks and work benches encourages hands on, messy work while two green rooms with cycloramas for video recording, two acoustically treated sound rooms for editing, and tables designed for collaboration around a computer are at the opposite end. A centrally focused gathering stair made of solid walnut planks provides an opportunity for speakers of all ages to present to large groups. Four Thinking Studios sit parallel to the lab and house artists-in-residence and encourage community vendors to provide an on-site learning experience. A Collaboration Corridor connects the Thinking Studios and the Lab. Flexible furniture provides options for various postures and group sizes as they work together to problem-solve, create, and learn. Operable glass partitions connect the corridor to the lab as well as connecting all of the thinking studios in order to create a large, open space supporting multiple functions.

Mobility was key as the needs and experiences change throughout the days, as do the ages of the students. The space comes to life with a wall graphic that captures the concept of the flow of learning. The mission of the Imagination Lab was to empower students to think for themselves, imagine their futures, and grow the confidence, desire, and drive it takes to change the world. The District will tell you: mission accomplished.