Head Start Burlington

As a former bank, the ex­ist­ing build­ing con­sisted of a large open work space sur­rounded by of­fices and sup­port at the build­ing perime­ter. HKP was tasked with re­con­fig­ur­ing the build­ing into an in­spir­ing and func­tional Early Learn­ing Cen­ter on a lim­ited bud­get. The ap­proach was to iden­tify the ex­ist­ing spaces and util­i­ties that could re­main and serve the needs of Head Start, and then iden­tify where the new pro­gram spaces would be most func­tion­ally and cost-ef­fec­tively lo­cated.

The pro­gram re­quired two class­rooms each with a child re­stroom. Dur­ing ini­tial space plan­ning ex­er­cises, it was de­ter­mined that the class­rooms needed to be on op­po­site sides of the build­ing to uti­lize the ex­ist­ing HVAC zones. New egress doors are in­cluded in the pro­ject to meet code re­quire­ments. New child re­strooms are lo­cated ad­ja­cent to the class­rooms. A large cen­tral open space will pro­vide an in­door play area and al­lows vi­sual con­ti­nu­ity through­out the build­ing.

With federal funding for the project, the design integrated requirements for the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS).

The ex­ist­ing break­room was too small to ac­com­mo­date the kitchen, so the kitchen now expands to the north to pro­vide ad­di­tional space. The two existing adult restrooms were renovated to be ADA and UFAS compliant.

Three al­ter­nates were in­cor­po­rated into the de­sign to man­age the bud­get and fluc­tu­at­ing bid mar­ket.