Location: Somerset,
New Jersey
Client: Somerset
Community Action Program; Isaac Dorsey, Executive
Director
Capacity: 192 students
Area: 20,000sq.ft.
Total cost: $3.6 mil.
Complete: June 2004
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Project
Description:
The new Child Development Center for the Somerset
Community Action Program (SCAP) provides childcare
and educational development within the guidelines
of the Somerset Head Start Program.
The facility provides a comprehensive learning program, including computer training
and distance learning. Administrative offices, registration, a nurse's office,
conference areas, a kitchen and a 1,800 -square-foot multiuse indoor play area
support these programs. Eight 1,100-square-foot classrooms each include a 215
-square-foot storytelling are, cubbies and toilet and teacher areas. The high
ceiling of the storytelling areas adds interest to the classroom's interior.
The facility establishes its own identity by occupying 3.5 acres at the edge
of a mixed-use campus. Its playful, bold and richly colored forms help form its
identity and establish and educational entity, with appropriate context, in the
surrounding community.
The building's functions are expressed in the plan's organization. All classrooms
and the two adjacent infant rooms are organized around a double-loaded corridor
and are open to the L-shaped play area. The administrative area is at the building's
formal entry, flanked by support spaces. The L-shaped corridor terminates at
the indoor play space.
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