The Sandia High School Science Academy and Library exemplifies a learning concept that APS has been incorporating into their school designs and rehabilitation. This project included a sports field, a landscaped mall connecting the new buildings to the rest of the campus and a very large wetland, which is the focal point of the Science Academy.

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The sports field design includes a baseball diamond, an outdoor gathering area and connective walkways. The center of the new campus includes walkways, seating areas, student gathering points and a landscape that ties into the wetland. The wetland and surrounding landscape functions as a learning laboratory. The landscape includes elements from the Sandia Mountain foothills and the Rio Grande Valley. The landscape incorporates outdoor biological classrooms, reused dimension cut concrete and a cistern to feed the wetland. The wetland has three distinct environments including aquatic plants from various landscapes. 

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Learning greenhouses and vegetable gardens complete the learning facility. Sites Southwest worked closely with the school’s biology teacher on this project.