U. childcare facility to begin construction

A new childcare facility for University NOW Day Nursery, the daycare program for children of University faculty, staff and students, has been approved by the Regional Planning Board of Princetonand will begin initial construction activities within the next month.

The new daycare center is set to open in September 2017 and will be located on Broadmead Street, directly south of the existing childcare facility. The Office of Information Technology, which shares the current building with UNOW, will remain in the existing Broadmead facility, according to University spokesperson Martin Mbugua.

OIT deferred comment to Mbugua.

University Architect Ron McCoy GS ’80 explained that the current facility was quite old and designed as a school rather than as a childcare facility. He said that in determining logistics for the new daycare center, the University worked with the faculty and leadership of UNOW as well as parents and administrators, responding to their needs for the kind of class activities that they needed to have the optimal number of children in a classroom and to abide by the regulations of the state of New Jersey for best practices.

After a thorough search, the University and UNOW selected Boston firm Maryann Thompson Architects to design the new daycare center in 2013, Deputy Director of the Office of Design and Construction Sean Joyner said. McCoy explained that the University and UNOW selected this firm because it has a lot of expertise in early childhood learning centers, that it knows how to design a building that would be a good fit for the surrounding residential neighborhood and it is committed to sustainability.

Representatives from Maryann Thompson Architects did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The new facility will allow UNOW to expand from serving 83 children to potentially serving 180 children, Director of UNOW Susan Bertrand said.

“The vision is to develop and continue practices that are work-family friendly — to offer more childcare, particularly infant childcare, to more families within the University community,” Bertrand said.

Sustainability and energy-efficiency were significant factors in every step of the planning process, according to McCoy and Joyner.

“A building like this starts with an intelligent way to put the building on the site, orienting it to take advantage of the southern sun in a passive-energy strategy,” McCoy added.

To this end, most of the classrooms are oriented to the south to capture light and thermal energy, and the roof even has photovoltaic panels that will provide about 50 percent of the electrical need, Joyner noted.

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Other energy-conscious measures will include passive ventilation, insulation, low-flow plumbing fixtures and energy-efficient mechanical systems, he added.

Beyond sustainability and the continuity of staff, appreciation of nature will also play a role in the new facility, McCoy said.

“There’s a certain principle that nature is the third teacher — that the natural materials are a sense of discovery; the textures, the colors, the scents,” McCoy said.

McCoy explained that the project team worked with landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and the Natural Learning Initiative at North Carolina State University, to craft such an educational experience, particularly in the playground.

“Playgrounds are actually part of the education mission of the facility because they are age-appropriate structures that help children, from infants to preschoolers, in developing muscle memory and balance and just having fun,” McCoy said.

In addition to the playground, the new facility will also include three separate play areas for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, multi-purpose classrooms, an art room and small library, McCoy said.

“We love children and we love what we do, and this is just an enhancement of a program that people have loved and have cherished for 45 years,” Bertrand said.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified which building the University has been logistically planning. The University has been working with faculty, UNOW leadership, parents and administrators on a new daycare center. The 'Prince' regrets the error.