Valor College Prep High School

In 2014, MZA began working with Valor Collegiate Academies, a non-profit charter school, on the phased design and construction of two middle schools (Flagship Middle & Voyager Middle) and a high school (Valor College Prep High School) on the school’s South Nashville campus.

After the completion of the first middle school in the fall of 2015, Valor purchased a former Lowe’s Home Improvement building, a more than 100,000 SF space situated on a parcel adjacent to Valor Flagship. The client’s goal was to turn the unused former retail space into two distinct schools: Voyager Middle (completed in 2017) and Valor College Prep (completed in 2018).

To meet the challenge of converting a former big box store into an educational space for more than 1,200 students MZA bifurcated the original building shell, creating a 10,000 SF exterior courtyard where interior space once existed. The courtyard provides lush green space, a vital amenity for schools in the urban core. A second floor was added to the existing building envelope, effectively doubling the usable area within the building’s footprint.

The courtyard, along with a central atrium, allows sunlight to penetrate the center of the high school, illuminating the educational spaces, chemistry labs, and music rooms near the building center. A new gym was delivered under a tight budget and space constraints and includes an elevated running track, basketball, and volleyball courts along with home and away locker rooms. The building’s former loading dock is now where strength training occurs.

The bright and airy building is organized around open, flexible communal spaces that reinforce the mentoring and mindfulness work at the core of the Valor educational model.