Legacy Early College, K4 Charter School

Legacy Early College is a public charter elementary, middle, and high school located in Greenville’s Sterling Community. Encompassing 32 acres, the school receives Title I and New Market Tax Credit funding assistance and its campus represent one of Greenville’s best examples of community renewal. McMillan Pazdan Smith assisted Legacy Charter with the creation of a Master Plan to expand their building program to include a 25,000 SF K3 and K4 preschool building that houses 12 classrooms; as well as expand their existing sports and recreation infrastructure to include a 24,000 SF multi-court gymnasium. Our team used this master plan to assist Legacy in rezoning a parcel of their existing campus from industrial to educational use and to revise a setback variance to make the site more neighborhood and pedestrian friendly.

Original plans called for the demolition of the existing pre-engineered metal building that had once served as a railroad warehouse, but after further conversations with stakeholders, our design team devised a plan to make the current structure usable and able to fit the needs of the school and community. Understanding existing space with the needs of the school, which included six classrooms and support space, required thorough field investigations. 

Though many building features were changed to reduce the industrial feeling of the structure, the metal roof deck is exposed from the interior, a nod to the history of the structure and an intentional decision to make the building feel less like a typical school building. Exterior features including color palette was thoughtfully curated to reflect the school’s colors, with the columns, canopy, and window frames following the color scheme. Additionally, wayfinding was a large part of the interior design strategy. The team created color-coded paths that corresponded to each of the six classrooms.