A large Silicon Valley company chose to remodel an existing 1980’s office building that was close to its established campus in lieu of new construction at a more remote location. Creating a functioning Children’s Center in a two-story building was quite challenging at first, but many of the innovative solutions we devised proved highly workable. For instance, the need to provide an easy and safe exit from classrooms on the second floor resulted in a large balcony along the South façade that supplied outdoor space to the second story while bringing shading to outdoor areas at ground level.

Some of the sustainable construction ideas integrated into the design included window shading from the summer sun combined with operable windows to allow for natural ventilation on mild days; the use of low-VOC finishes to virtually eliminate off-gassing during construction; and extensive rainwater filtering strategies to reduce stormwater runoff from the site.

These centers focused on developing a procession for arriving children to transition into the classrooms, while creating a direct connection from indoors to outdoors to maximize site lines for teachers.