Described by the Owner as “a wonderland of learning” and “the happiest place on earth,” the North Kansas City Schools Early Education Center is home to nearly one thousand early childhood learners, making it one of the largest early childhood facilities in the State of Missouri. The design responds to this unique group of early learners -- approximately 50% of that population consists of special needs learners.
The district pursued adaptive reuse of an existing Hobby Lobby and Price Chopper. Formerly 112,000 SF of vacated strip mall retail space, the design team was challenged to turn a cavernous, dilapidated big-box store into a colorful, welcoming, and child-friendly environment.
To break down the scale of the building and strengthen a sense of community, the design creates smaller, more intimate neighborhoods, or “pods,” each with a biophilic theme ranging from honeycomb to butterflies. Due to the young age of the learners (3-5), most of whom cannot yet read, each pod also has a corresponding color to assist with wayfinding. Each neighborhood provides easy access to distributed resources for educators and students to reduce transition time and recapture that time for learning. Outdoor play environments flank the entire front façade of the building, softening the edge of a harsh retail development while also providing the necessary amount of outdoor play environment needed for early childhood.