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Great Beginnings Early Education Center
Excellent educational programs are seldom the result of a building alone; however, through the cooperative efforts of a diverse group of participants the “Great Beginnings Early Education Center” was a natural. Spawned by a private donation, the Lee’s Summit School District was challenged to provide a much needed new facility for Parents As Teachers and Early Childhood Education programs. The Community responded with matching funds, while the City formed a lease agreement to locate the building on park land. Research makes it clear that the first five years of life are critical in building the foundation for children’s later school success. Throughout these first years of life there are a number of essential windows of opportunity during which certain kinds of stimuli are needed to help the brain develop and maintain critical connections necessary for learning. Lee’s Summit R-7 has long been leaders in providing exceptional learning opportunities for young children first providing these services nearly thirty years ago. While the number of children and families needing services has dramatically escalated, unfortunately the District had not been able to maintain adequate facilities to accommodate this growing population of children. In 1981, the first year the District provided Early Childhood services, twenty children were enrolled in the program. That number has multiplied ten fold and current scattered facilities included temporary educational trailers and forty-year old buildings. The first and primary goal of the new project was to provide adequate space to consolidate these two programs so the staff members can work side-by-side and share employee resources and facilities in order to best serve children and families in a developmentally sequential environment. The new 34,200-square-foot facility doubles the amount of space dedicated to these programs and serves about 300 preschool children with special needs or developmental delays. It is also home to the District’s Parents As Teachers program, which serves nearly 3,000 children from birth through age five. One of the design objectives was to incorporate the natural environment and those stimuli that younger children need throughout the physical building itself. That is recognized from the moment visitors enter the lobby filled with natural light provided through clerestory windows. The two programs share a spacious multi-purpose room, offices, speech, and occupational / physical therapy spaces. Combining these two programs in a shared facility allows more children to be served, provides greater staff flexibility and collaboration, and also eliminates fear as some families transition from one program to the next. To the south are twelve classrooms for the physically or developmentally delayed children accepted into the Early Childhood Program. The design of the two classroom wings reflects the fact that the building’s students are five years old or younger. The design promoted the use of six shapes and six colors for wayfinding to provide a recognizable element for students to identify their rooms since they do not read, and are just learning their numbers. Accommodating students with physical or mental disabilities required another level of specialization. We paid close attention to humidity control and mechanical systems. The classrooms have windows for parents to observe their children from the corridor. A specially designed playground with equipment that is accessible for students with disabilities is adjacent to both classroom wings. The Parents As Teachers program is to the north and contains thirty-six individual work stations for parent educators. While these educators spend a great amount of their time outside of the facility in parent’s homes an open workstation concept was utilized to maximize interaction among the staff. The philosophy behind this was to take advantage of each educator’s individual experiences for the greater benefit of sharing developmental knowledge. The facility also provides space for parent group meetings, parent/child activity groups, and developmental screenings for language, motor, health/physical development and sensory functioning. On of the major design challenges was incorporating these two programs into a single building. At first glance it would seem logical and relatively easy; however, each program had a unique identity that they wished to maintain. Everything from the name of the building, to the color selection, to logos and even the donor wall, which accommodated a late addition of a fish tank, were intently studied and discussed. The design solution provided a very kid friendly building, but without dramatic child-like themes resulting in very classical building that everyone is proud of. The design features a prominent main entrance but also accommodates secondary entrances for the PAT program and bus drop off increasing security and efficiency through appropriate separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic for both programs. Districts planning new educational facilities often do not have the administrators or staff selected to the beginning of the design process. But in designing the Great Beginnings center, the staff, administrators, students, and parents were part of an existing program and had clear ideas of what they wanted in their new facility. Likewise in a typical project you are working with one public entity, usually the School District. This project also involved the City’s Parks & Recreation Department. Add to the mix was a major private sector providing a major component of funding and a true Public-Private Partnership was established from the beginning. Design cannot be truly successful unless it is a participatory process. However, incorporating the views and satisfying so many different entities was challenging. We spoke a lot with the principals of both programs, staff, and parents and gained a lot of information and insight. Both individual and group meetings were held to efficiently manage the input and direction from the various stakeholders. Because such early education centers are relatively uncommon, the views of the building’s constituents and user groups played an essential role in defining what the building would be. The site was a major element in the design solution. Located in a park the building was planned and designed to provide a strong visual presence from the park entrance across a lake. The building utilizes a variety of natural materials and takes advantage of the views of the surrounding park in the classrooms thus bringing nature inside. The building was oriented on the site on a SW – NE axis to maximize the positive attributes of the sun minimizing any direct Southerly or Westerly exposures and radiant heat gain. The building plan was altered to accommodate a large amount of rock found during early testing to minimize the amount of excavation. Careful consideration was given to a planned Community Center building to make the two facilities work together on the site. The aesthetics of the building were designed to blend into the park setting with the use of a variety of human scale natural materials to create a warm inviting presence. Like the natural limestone monument signs announcing entry to the park, battered limestone columns adorn the building’s wood trussed entry canopies. A tall curved wall of stack bond burnished block provides a monolithic backdrop for signage along with identifying and framing the main entrance. Careful consideration in the selection of color and texture for the modular masonry units creates a subtle balance between the natural setting and the building’s façade. The load bearing double wythe masonry walls grow from the ground with a rough textured wainscot of integrally colored split faced block. Tempering the harsh appearance are smooth eight inch square accents of burnished block spaced randomly throughout the wainscot simulating the diversity of nature. A light colored burnished accent band provides transition from the rough textured base to the smooth field brick above as well as highlighting window and door openings. Standard modular field brick with a pattern of projected coursing and articulation of masonry control joints establish a measured rhythm that ties the various design elements together. Although Sustainable Design was not a primary design objective several energy conscience methods such as the use of heat recovery, an energy management system, and abundant natural lighting were incorporated to minimize the environmental impact. Despite the challenges of working with numerous stakeholder groups, accommodating the needs and desires of two unique programs, site considerations, funding delays, and accommodating the special needs of young children, especially those with physical or mental disabilities the end result is a cohesive facility harmoniously blended into the park setting providing an enriching educational environment. Project Description:
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