Child Care, Head Start & Children's Learning Projects Experience

Our early childhood educational and learning-based project experience includes

Growing Green Child Care
Kenosha, WI

Provided schematic drawings and building layout for a new 11,600 square foot “green” child care center.  Although the building is not L.E.E.D. certified, we specified healthy building materials and healthy furniture/props.  The building will serve 142 children ages 2-12 and includes a children’s art studio.  The unique and naturalized playground we designed includes musical instruments, rock climbing, an art center, dinosaur dig, recirculating stream, custom Growing Green market and a drive-through tryke storage shed. We worked with the client from feasibility through the design stage.

Hospital-Based Child Care Center
Chicago, IL

Provided schematic design oversight for a 20,000 square foot hospital-based child care center to be housed in a high rise parking structure in downtown Chicago.  The center includes a two level layout for classrooms for infants to school age children, shared spaces, multi-purpose room, staff resource room, offices, a kindergarten and an art studio for children.  The building will be L.E.E.D. certified and serves as an employer sponsored child development center.

Catholic Charities
Kansas City, KS

Renovated a toddler/Early Head Start classroom including specifying equipment.  Assisted with recruiting, interviewing and selecting a new director for the early education center.

Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church
Englewood, CO

Provided on-site consultation regarding the environment to a church that operates a preschool and children’s ministry. Surveys and meetings were conducted with staff, parents and church members regarding their interest in upgrading and renovating the children’s wing.

Child Care Center
Gloucester, ME

Provided on-site technical assistance to a child care center planning to move operations to a new site.  Technical assistance was provided on renovation, outdoor environments and budgeting for a new location.

Stargate Children’s Academy
Dubai, U.A.E.

Provided schematic design documents, suggested field trips and possible enrichment workshops for a children’s academy.  Spaces included a digital lab, construction/Lego lab, art lab, pottery lab, cooking lab, planetarium lab and flexible classrooms.

Blue Springs School District Special Services Center
Blue Springs, MO

Provided consultation and design supervision to the Hollis + Miller Architects to create a 33,000 square foot building for children with disabilities. The building houses over 200 early childhood special education students ages 3-5 years and 16 multi-handicapped students ages 3-21 years. Speech/language, occupational, and physical therapy are provided in the building. Our team also designed two outdoor play gardens.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital
Albany, GA

Provided consultation to this regional hospital on the expansion of their existing childcare program. An employee survey was conducted and an architectural program was written for a building for 171 additional children ages 6 weeks to 12 years.

Better Kids Drop-In Child Care Center
Ft. Mitchell, KY

Provided construction documents and equipment specifications for the renovation of a drop in child care center located in a fitness club.

Grand Targhee Resort Child Care Center
Alta, WY

Provided renovation documents, cost estimation, room layouts, furniture specifications and equipment orders for a drop in childcare facility at a ski resort.

WCCA Head Start
Hendersonville, NC

Provided consultation to a local architect to create the schematic floor layout for a Head Start program and an Early Head Start program.

Kids Health 2020
Cleveland, OH

Provided technical assistance and consultation on the start-up and design of an urban Early Head Start center and a play center for children and their families.

Spartanburg Regional Health Care System
Spartanburg, SC

Provided schematic floor layouts, equipment and start-up budgets, construction cost estimation and conceptual drawings for a new child care center to serve 250 children.

Lake County Park District
Crown Point, IN

Developed full architectural construction documents, cost estimations, furniture specifications, costume design and equipment orders for a 23,000 square foot children’s play and discovery center.  The center will include a pretend village, construction play, interactive cooking, an art studio, water tables, a train village, and an outdoor garden.  The theme is based around environmental education and included writing school field trip curriculums.

Education Institute, Inc.
Republic, MO

Provided consultation and technical assistance to this organization for the start-up of a child care center. Information was provided on feasibility studies, start-up budgeting, operational budgets and design of the physical space both indoors and outdoors.

Lake County YMCA
Waukegan, IL

Provided on-site consultation on the Early Head Start classroom environments.

Gertrude Nielsen Child Care& Learning Center
Northbrook, IL

Provided consultation on the physical environment of this corporate child care center and provided a design workshop for infant teachers on the renovation of the outdoor play space.

Friendship Circle
West Bloomfield, MI

Provided consultation and plan review of a recreational building for children with disabilities. A 20,000 square foot building serves as a therapy and activity center along with a Life Village where children with special needs can have fun while practicing important life skills through role-play. The site will also be used for school field trips for children with disabilities. Consultation focused on the concept of universal design in all aspects of therapy such as water play, sand play, motor therapy and art therapy. A project visit is planned to collect design information to create an outdoor play garden at this site that will be accessible to all.

Herndon Career Center, Child Development Center
Raytown, MO

Providing consultation to the Raytown school district on the renovation of their child development center.

Loving Arms Daycare
Junction City, KS

Provided consultation to an existing childcare center on possible expansion into a different facility. This would include not only a building renovation, but also a program expansion. Topics of discussion included writing a business plan, writing policies and procedures, developing start-up and operational budgets, market feasibility, procuring a loan and facility renovation. Time was devoted to reviewing the existing business plan, reading operational policies and evaluating budgets.

Sunshine Center
Independence, MO

Provided consultation to a childcare facility serving both typically developing and children with special needs on the use of their existing space and the possibility of expansion of the project into an addition.

Children's Project
Managua, Nicaragua

White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group was hired to study the culture and existing leisure programs for children in this Central American city.

Silver Lake Drop-In Child Care Center
Ft. Mitchell, KY

Provided construction documents and equipment specifications for the renovation of a drop in child care center located in a fitness club.

Pikes Peak Community College, Centennial Campus Child Development Center
Colorado Springs, CO

White Hutchinson was retained by a local foundation to conduct a feasibility study to project current and future demand, evaluate the existing center, recommend a development program, project development costs and examine affordability issues.

Roper Early Learning Center, Roper St. Francis Health Care
Charleston, SC

Evaluated the early learning center at a hospital for a possible renovation project.

Children's Social Services Program
Beirut, Lebanon

Consulted on a new not-for-profit children's social services organization in Beirut, Lebanon called Children Interactive Community (CIC). CIC's mission will be to enhance the education and life skills of poor Arab children, including teaching tolerance and problem solving skills. The program will be neighborhood-based, emphasizing partnering with other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and the government. There are currently 150 NGOs operating in the greater Beirut area.
CIC's program will include home invention; a model childcare; development of neighborhood libraries, toy libraries and computer centers; assistance in capacity building for other NGOs that work with children; teacher and social worker training; development of neighborhood play and recreation facilities and enhancements to existing school environments and curricula. This comprehensive approach to children and their families will require partnering with the mosaic of NGO's, political and religious organizations and the government.

Pikes Peak Community College, Rampart Range Campus
Colorado Springs, CO

Conducted a feasibility study for a new child development center, wrote an architectural program and recommended a site for the new center.

The Berkeley Group, LLC
Herndon, VA

Reviewed the business plan and start up budgets for a new child care center.

Center for Children's Services
Danville, IL

Provided technical assistance and consultation to the board and staff on options for child care expansion. WHLLG has worked with this agency for over three years on creating a plan for the start-up funding, design and budget of a new child care facility. A market feasibility study was conducted and we determined that the market area did not have sufficient unmet demand to support the development of a market-rate child care center.

Sutter Lakeside Early Head Start
Lakeport, CA

Provided consultation in collaboration with a local architect on the creation of an interior design for the renovation of a bank into an Early Head Start center. Provided a master plan for an outdoor area to be developed as an infant-toddler garden.

Metro Morning Star Church
Chantilly, VA

Created a master plan for a church community that includes custom portable buildings for the children's church, a children's play and discovery center and a children' water park.

Children's Play Room, Private Residence
Jackson Hole, WY

Provided cost estimates, interior renovation plans, furniture specifications and room layout for an 1100 square foot children’s playroom in a private residence.

Gould Evans Architectural Firm
Kansas City, MO

Provided consultation to a local architectural firm on the master plan for an urban childcare center

Head Start Centers
Peoria, IL

Designed plans for renovation of part of a church, an office building and a house as (1) an infant/toddler Early Head Start Center, and (2) two Head Start Centers.

Child Care Association of Wichita, KS

Evaluated existing building for renovation project to include Head Start classrooms. Trained infant-toddler Early Head Start staff on creating indoor environments.

Salvation Army
Omaha, NE

Evaluated existing child care facility and conducted training on the design of indoor environments for infants and toddlers.

West Valley Fitness and Wellness Center
West Valley, UT

Providing schematic design work, equipment selection and budget projections for the construction of a drop-in child care facility for children up to age five and a "hands-on" play area for children under the age or eight in this new 96,000 square foot facility.

Nibbles Play Café
Wheeling, IL

Provided construction drawings, cost estimations, room layouts and furniture/equipment specifications for a children’s play café.  Plans include a changing dramatic play area, performance area, water tables, a giant train table and an infant/toddler play space.

Foothills Mall
Tucson, AZ

Designed a 4,000 sf developmentally appropriate children's play area for the food court area that includes water play; a pretend village with supermarket, video rental and restaurant; construction and an infant-toddler area.

NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
Cape Canaveral, FL

Provided technical assistance to the Visitor Complex on the design of the physical environment and how it affects usage by children and families, child safety issues and the developmental appropriateness of presentations to children.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
Springfield, IL

Served as design consultants for Mrs. Lincoln's Attic, a special area where children 9 and under can be engaged in hands-on activities in the life and times of Lincoln. Events include pretend dress-up, miniature play, a pretend cabin and cabin building. BRC Imaginative Arts is the show producer for the Museum.

Millard Public Schools Foundation
Omaha, NE

Provide consultation and schematic plan review for a new early education center.

Lutheran Church
Paris, IL

Provided technical assistance to the church on the planning phases of developing a new child care facility.

Doha, Qatar

Prepared schematic building and discovery play garden design, development cost estimate and operating revenue and cost budgets for a model child care facility in this Gulf State country. Extensive cultural research was conducted with parents, children and the educational community.

Pizza Hut
Los Angeles, CA

Served as design consultants on development of a new restaurant prototype that will include developmentally appropriate play areas for children and be child and family friendly.

 

LouLou Al Dugong's
Dubai, U.A.E.

Provided construction documents, furniture specifications, cost estimation, room layouts, costume design and equipment orders for a 25,000 square foot children’s edutainment center.  Events include pretend fishing, a construction zone, children’s library, a dinosaur dig, face painting, children cooking and pretend henna.  Staff selection was done by traveling to India, Thailand and Morocco to select candidates and then train them in Play Leadership.

Fun Time Early Childhood Academy
Naples, FL

Created final design documents and managed the construction process for the completion of a 27,300 square foot early care and education center.  The center serves as a model for early literacy and the performing arts programs with young children.  The two story structure includes classrooms for children ages infancy through five years, an art studio, a children's library, a children's pull out performance stage, multi-purpose space that can be broken down into dance classrooms, a computer library, a parent resource room, and a teacher resource room.  There are three gardens for children on this site including a roof top garden for children ages 3-5 years.

Drop In Child Care Center
Covington, KY

Provided on-site technical assistance to a business owner to create a drop in childcare center. Topics included reviewing the business plan, start-up and operational budgets and evaluating possible sites for a location.

Roper Early Learning Center, Roper St. Francis Health Care
Charleston, SC

Performed an on-site building evaluation for the possible renovation of this childcare center. Work also included evaluation and feedback on proposed renovation of the outdoor play spaces.

Al-Khor Girls Private School
Doha, Qatar

Provided training and technical assistance for the start-up of the Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms at a new girls school.

Holy Trinity Catholic Parish
Lenexa, KS

Provided consultation to the parish on schematic drawings for a new early education center for preschool children.  Included a written evaluation of the current building layout to create space that better meets the needs of the different types of programs being offered.

Grace Community Bible Church
Richmond, TX

Provided site layout for an expansion of church and childcare programs that serve children up to age five years.

Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain

Provided schematic designs and cost estimates for a 25,000 square foot children’s edutainment center.  Included an outdoor adventure play garden and spray grounds on the roof of the building.

Totter Otterville
Covington, KY

Provided renovation documents, room layouts, furniture specification, costume design and equipment orders for a children’s play and discovery space in a locally owned toy store. 

Smart Kids, Jeddah
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Assisted the Al Kohair Group with design, operations, consulting and curriculum development for Smart Kids in Jarir Mall.  Smart Kids is a new concept that includes a walk-in children play and discovery center, a toy store and coffee shop for mothers and nannies.

Children’s Play and Discovery Center
Lagos, Nigeria

Provided schematic design documents and cost estimations for a 45,000 square foot children play and discovery center that will also include a children’s learn-to-swim pool and outdoor naturalized playground.