Dr. Joseph Torres Elementary School opened in northeast El Paso, Texas in 2020, under  an El Paso ISD Bond that sought to right-size and modernize schools to better serve students for the 21st century. The new and improved school, named for beloved El Paso activist and U.S. Army veteran Torres, consolidated the former Bradley and Fannin elementary schools into one unified campus. The project called for renovating 54,000 sq ft of existing space and adding 49,950 sq ft of new construction to provide a modern and open learning environment for more than 1,000 prekindergarten to fifth-grade students. Consolidating two long-standing primary schools required extensive stakeholder engagement from the start, capturing essential historical, cultural and safety needs for all project stakeholders.

M2L Associates partnered with ERO Architects to provide landscape architecture and design for the project. Among the challenges of combining old spaces and new were safety and age-appropriate considerations for transportation and outdoor areas, optimizing the district’s new learning guidelines, and designing for a challenging West Texas topography. The plan called for updated, age-appropriate playgrounds, dropoff and pickup areas, and numerous open spaces where students could gather to study, socialize or relax. The landscaping was designed to meet El Paso high desert planting design specifications that incorporate low-maintenance, native vegetation and natural-stone landscape surfaces.