North Kansas City Schools Early Education Center
Gladstone, Missouri
The North Kansas City Schools Early Education Center is home to nearly 1,000 early childhood learners. It has been described by administrators as a wonderland of learning and the happiest place on earth. The design team was challenged to turn vacated strip mall retail space—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. Because of the young age of the learners (3 to 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.
Additional Information
Cost per Sq Ft
$175.00
Citation
Crow Island School Citation
Featured in
2023 Educational Interiors Showcase
Interior category
Pre-K/Early Childhood Education
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