SPARC-ing More Progress

HKP continues to make progress with the vision for Skagit Preschool and Resource Center’s future building needs. Our early childhood education programming specialist, Alissa Rupp with FRAME, led two sessions here at HKP. Through the wonders of Zoom, Scott Melbourne with MxM Landscape Architecture attended from Hong Kong! Skagit Preschool and Resource Center (SPARC) provides educational, therapeutic, and related services to children from birth to five years of age of all abilities. They specialize in neuromuscular or developmental delays, disorders, and chronic medical conditions, serving children and their parents currently across six locations.

The focus of these workshops is to start with a blank sheet approach in determining the different users of their buildings and, from a user-centric point of view, the types and quantities of the spaces within. The first workshop focused on the number of children to be served and their related age groups. This information helps determine the types and quantities of instructional and therapeutic spaces.

The next session focused on the logistical aspects of SPARC, meshing their organizational chart with the types and spaces supporting their mission. Following FRAME’s data-driven programming, we are able to present initial programming information numerically and graphically, and outline the sizes of a potential building and outdoor play spaces.

Through this process, we are providing SPARC with a document outlining site selection guidelines so they may quickly and easily evaluate the feasibility of any potential site. The document and rough costing guidelines will help bring clarity and direction to any future capital campaigns that should result in a permanent home for SPARC.