The Flint Cultural Center Academy is a new 78,000 SF, 650 student, K-8 Charter School designed to change the learning outcomes of disadvantaged children. Ridgway White, CEO of the Mott Foundation, understood that not all children learn alike and that children thrive in flexible educational environments where multiple learning and teaching styles such as hands on learning techniques, small group interaction, and teaming are incorporated into the day to day operations.
After years of dreaming and planning for a measurably more successful future for children in Flint and the surrounding community, it was determined to locate the new school on the campus of one of Flint’s long standing assets, the Flint Cultural Center. This 48-acre cultural campus houses Fine Arts, Music, Science, History, Performing Arts and Drama, as well as the largest Planetarium in the State of Michigan.
Locating the new school close to two of the most heavily accessed Cultural Center facilities, the Sloan Museum of Discovery and the Flint Institute of Music, allowed the two buildings to be to physically linked to the new school creating easy access to these resources for students and staff without ever having to leave the interior of the building.
With a construction budget of $20 Million and an aggressive schedule, the design was approved two days before Christmas in 2017, giving the THA team only 5 months to take the site plan and one line floor plans from concept to final construction drawings and only 13 months for the general contractor to complete the 78,000 SF school.
