Stanley British Primary School in Denver's Lowry neighborhood is planning a 16,400-square-foot arts and community building, complete with a stage, auditorium, three classrooms and an outdoor amphitheater — and it will rise where the school's swimming pool and pool house have stood for roughly 25 years.
The project, first detailed by The Denver Post, would replace the existing pool house and swimming pool on the interior of Stanley's campus, which sits east of Quebec Street between 3rd and 5th avenues in Lowry. Three classrooms are planned as part of the new building — two for music and one for art — alongside the stage, auditorium and amphitheater. Stanley is working with architecture firm Semple Brown on the design, the same firm that helped plan the school's 11-acre campus.
A 25-Year Pool Partnership Comes to a Close
The new building means the end of a decades-long arrangement with Lowry Swim Club, which operated the pool on Stanley's campus for approximately 25 years through what the club described on its website, lowryswimclub.org, as a longstanding partnership. Stanley did not renew the club's lease for the pool and surrounding area after the 2026 season, and the club said on its site that Stanley had been evaluating its broader master plan since 2022. The swim club's final day of operation took place earlier in September.
Stanley serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and has been in Lowry since the 1990s, when it moved onto a portion of the former Lowry Air Force Base, per the Denver Post's reporting. The school was founded in 1972 by Carolyn Hambidge, a British-born educator, and has built its identity around small class sizes, multi-age classrooms and limited technology use for younger students. Its student-to-teacher ratio typically runs around five to one, and the school emphasizes letting students choose the topics they learn, according to the same report.
Tuition, Finances and a Growing Campus
Annual tuition at Stanley ranges between $27,500 and $30,000, though a quarter of all students receive financial assistance, the Denver Post's account notes. The school reported $16.3 million in revenue last year against $14.9 million in expenditures, based on its 2025 tax filings. A July 2025 tax filing reviewed by ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer confirms Stanley is registered as a school nonprofit.
Sumant Bhat, head of school at Stanley, said the project would create a new center of campus life and strengthen connection and belonging, according to the Denver Post's reporting. Bhat also said the lead project manager overseeing the work is a Stanley alumna, tying the school's next chapter back to its own history.
Not the Only Denver School Building Big
Stanley isn't alone among Denver-area independent schools investing in performing arts space. Graland Country Day School, located at 55 Clermont St. in Denver's Hilltop neighborhood, submitted plans this month for a 25,000-square-foot performing arts and communications building that would replace an existing theater building, according to BusinessDen. Graland's student body includes more than 700 students spanning preschool through eighth grade, making it considerably larger than Stanley's campus community even as both schools bet on new stages and classrooms to anchor their next phase of growth.
