El Centro is Dallas County Community College District’s flagship campus.  Founded in 1966 El Centro is the first of seven campuses that were created to provide Dallas County citizens with access to quality education that is both convenient and affordable.  The District currently serves a total of more than 83,000 credit and 20,000 continuing education students each semester. 

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The master plan for El Centro College, as created by CaCo Architecture, addresses the unique needs of the District’s flagship campus community, its mission, physical character, attributes and cultural context within and beyond its boundaries; as a guideline it provides DCCCD’s s leadership the tools and information to position the College for the next 50 years.

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The scope of the Masterplan included the evaluation of existing facilities while identifying needs and deficiencies, appropriate development and redevelopment suited to the conditions and character of each real estate asset comprising El Centro’s campus.  Global strategies were presented to best position the campus for present and future growth, maximizing resources and considering sustainability in every sense of the word.

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Addressing future needs, the masterplan considers long range development plans, streetscape and transit access, all critical to El Centro’s student community. The Development of a new vertical campus within the CBD concept was introduced as a parallel track to retaining the original campus site.