Bombeck Family Learning Center

Narratives

Architect Narrative

The Family Learning Center was developed from the University of Dayton School of Education’s desire to transition from merely supplying daycare to providing world-class early childhood education. The large 13,600 sq.ft. addition to the existing 7,300 sq ft building provides capacity for up to 120 children, from infant through pre- school, and supports the Center’s curriculum.

The land-locked site is located at the northwest edge of campus. The east-side of the building is set into the hillside along Alberta Street, which slopes down from Alberta into a level area occupied by The Children’s Center and play fields. High windows allow light to enter the classrooms along the partially exposed east wall. The hillside along Stewart Street provides a natural buffer from the campus beyond. The massing of the new facility is broken into a series of cottage facades to provide a friendly house scale environment and to mediate between the scale of the addition and the surrounding residential neighborhood.

The interior facility design offers a high degree of openess and connection. Primary circulation throughout the facility happens along single-loaded corridors that wrap a courtyard. Supervision and a positive sense of activity are fostered by wide halls with glass to both the outside and classrooms. Direct access to the courtyard “rooms” from every classroom provides a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor environments.

All spaces were designed to welcome children and their parents into the Center and ease any anxieties. Each classroom offers a distinctive color schemes to give children a better sense of which room is theirs. The rooms feature a reading nook and activity area, along with plenty of open floor space to support a variety of tasks. A wide variety of finish materials and textures provide a range of experiences, both visual and tactile for children. Classroom observation galleries afford parents and UD education majors the opportunity to unobtrusively observe the interaction between instructors and children.