Shepherd Valley Waldorf School Master Plan

Shepherd Valley Waldorf School is a pre-K through 8th grade school founded in 1993 in Niwot, Colorado. As a component of an ambitious campus and curriculum expansion a master plan and development strategy was developed to meet its founding vision of an integrated working farm and Waldorf school.

The resultant master plan establishes a well-defined inner campus in the 5-acre envelope, protected from highway and railroad noise, and brutal winter winds, from the northwest, and an industrial park to its immediate south. At the same time the inner campus maintains a strong physical and visual connection to the active agricultural land, playing fields, cottonwood grove, and prairie of the outer campus surrounding it to the west, north, and east and to the dramatic mountain view-shed to the west.

The plan accommodates a flexible development period by proposing a series of individual buildings housing specific program elements, which can be constructed over time, and without undue disruption to the ongoing operations of the School. The buildings are linked by covered exterior walkways and gathering spaces, which provide shade and weather protection during class transitions, but equally importantly support and direct the daily processional passages integral to Waldorf pedagogy.