Friday, December 5, 2008

New Building at CMU

Margaret and I had an early morning meeting with the head of technology for the new education building at CMU (former center quad of Washington Court apartments). In the middle of the meeting he asked us if we had been inside the new building yet. When we said no, he asked if we wanted to go!!! We were out of our seats in a flash. Our new preschool will be in this building so we've been doing a lot of work helping with the design and getting ready to go. The SD card on the camera I grabbed on the way out the door filled up after only about 8 pictures, so I didn't capture much, but here's what I did get... This is a small inner hall between two classrooms. On the left is the child bathroom area (it has only a 1/2 wall, so we're going to have to stock up on room freshener! On the right side is a small cubbie room that will be shared by the two rooms so that the children don't have to keep all of their personal items inside the classroom itself. This hall will stay open between the two classrooms so that the children can go back and forth.
This is inside one of the classrooms. I am standing by the south facing wall which is all windows. To the right, you can see where the observation booth will be (this has a two way mirrored window so that college students can watch the children in the room). In each room, the curved wall that has the mirrored window will be made out of wood found in Michigan (ie. one will be Maple, one Pine, etc.). If you could look through Margaret's yellow hard hat, you would see the door that leads out into the main preschool hall.

This just might be best feature of each classroom. The entire south facing wall of each classroom is floor to ceiling window, with a glass door that will lead out to the playground. This is a green building (the roof over the classrooms will also have greenery growing on it), so they angled the roof in such a way that full sun enters the room in the winter, and minimal direct sun enters in the summer. We may never have to turn on the lights!


Another shot in the classroom along the edge of the window wall that will be made of wood.

Here is a closer shot of the door that leads from each classroom out into the main preschool hallway. Now I can't wait to get back there with a camera that is not already full of pictures! It was fun to finally walk into the building and know what each space was because I had poured over the plans so many times. I was able to walk through each of the 4 classrooms, the storage area and studio, the indoor play room, eating area, kitchen, conference room, offices, reception space and entry area. Can you tell I'm excited!!!?? This is why I won't be able to make any committments during the month of July. CMU has already made it clear that we will be moving then, and have to be ready at the drop of a hat if the schedule changes. It may be a long summer, but I'm hopeful that it will be worth it!




1 comment:

Carol and Dan said...

That is super nice! How exciting to be a part of the project!..c.