Completed by NWL Architects in 2013, the award-winning Neil Armstrong STEM Academy was the first Utah school designed from the ground up to fully support a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) curriculum. With its modern, space-age-inspired facade, the 95,000-square-foot school’s design is a testament to the math, engineering, science, and technology taught under its very roof. The pre-K through 6th-grade elementary school was designed to support its students and teachers in a very real way with flexible, technologically adaptable, raised-flooring classrooms that accommodate the most up-to-date educational modalities and technology available. Tablet hardware allows students to interact with their grade level and their teachers, while three fully equipped STEM labs provide exciting learning pathways for eager students. Large group studios on each floor of the school were designed for collaborative instruction; a refreshing and intentional departure from traditional classroom constraints. The school’s design not only celebrates STEM learning but serves as a learning and teaching tool itself – transparent walls and ceilings at the building’s central hub provide a glimpse into otherwise hidden mechanical systems, adding visual stimulation and inspiring curiosity and learning among students. The school’s clean, simple, light-filled interiors are informed by an interplay of asymmetry, sharp angles, and long, clean lines, all enclosed by post-modern-inspired dramatic metal exteriors. Masonry on the lower exterior ties the building’s design together visually, adding a traditional scholastic feel that provides a grounding contrast to the more futuristic aesthetics of the building.

Mimicking a rocket’s fins or an ascending flight path, the school’s metal-clad overhang dramatically juts out skyward over the entryway; a thoughtful homage to the space age that both sets the tone for the educational ingenuity for the school and represents the ascending path upon which the Armstrong Academy’s students are headed.