GMB Architecture + Engineering designed a creative space for the youngest students at Thornapple Kellogg Schools’ Early Childhood Center in Middleville, Michigan.

Thornapple Kellogg Schools expanded their educational offerings to accommodate a growing number of students with a new Early Childhood Center that houses the district’s preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, the Great Start Readiness Preschool, Early Childhood Special Education, and childcare. Part of the district’s $42.8 million bond to enhance the district’s educational facilities and create space for a growing community, the building and landscape were designed to accommodate early learners with spaces for both indoor and outdoor play and learning. The facility also houses the before and after school childcare program for Thornapple-Kellogg students in grades K-5th and has a dedicated space for school board meetings. Enabling the district to expand their programming for early learners while creating flexibility for future expansion and curricular adaptability is at the heart of this new school.

Creating a sense of community pride, the new facility includes a welcome area, secure entrance, staff offices and lounge, and a large multipurpose room and gymnasium that can be used for community events and gatherings. The building programs were arranged to allow for the more private academic learning spaces to be closed off while allowing the more public and community focused spaces to host events afterhours.

With a focus on play as a learning medium, the spaces promote the creation of advanced learning environments, collaboration among students, faculty and staff, and instructional flexibility. An indoor rock-climbing wall in the corridor promotes the development of gross motor skills and complements the concept of integrating indoor and outdoor play. The outdoor playground took on a graduated scale of rural landscapes, from a rustic farmhouse up close to the building, to a walkway shaped like a river, to a “distant” woodland. The play area was arranged in a patchwork of areas, like the form of farmlands adjacent to each other. More literally, the majority of the site was returned to prairie with half of the available space given back to local farming. Students will be able to watch the process and development of both nature and agriculture right outside their windows.

A major project concept was rooted in the character and history of the rural community surrounding the site in both form and function. Fieldstones, or “rock” forms, disrupt the simple masonry exterior creating a sense of wayfinding and architectural forms that allowed windows to be placed high above the building’s central learning spine providing ample natural light within the interior corridors and mudroom spaces. The use of fieldstones on site in their natural form was the essential idea that drove some of the building shapes and materiality, with concepts expanding into other agrarian scenes in the landscape. Low-maintenance grasses and new landscaping on the site will provide a wind barrier, shade and visual appeal as the vegetation matures. The new building also features efficient and adaptable infrastructure. The new location of the Early Childhood Center will allow for future growth and space for new facilities to create a campus feel for the district.

Design: GMB Architecture + Engineering Construction Manager: Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. Photography: Jason Keen

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