The only childcare provider in Snowmass, The Little Red Schoolhouse, will more than double its capacity once an expansion project is completed next year — from 24 to 60 children.
Construction broke ground on June 17 after three years of planning. The Town of Snowmass is several million dollars short of the project’s expected $8.5 million budget and has received $208,000 from Pitkin County.
The main element of the project is the addition of a 5,650-square-foot building, adjacent to the original schoolhouse, which was built in 1894. The new building was designed by local architect firm Land+Shelter and Denver-based firm Ford Architects.
Land+Shelter is prolific throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, with design work including the recently constructed Carbondale Aquatics Center. The firm often submits proposals for public works projects, including several childcare centers like the Little Red Schoolhouse.
Aspen Public Radio’s Hannah Weaver spoke with Land+Shelter architect Taylor Higgins about the Little Red Schoolhouse expansion design process and the firm’s mission.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Hannah Weaver: Why do you, as a firm or you personally, gravitate towards or go after these early childhood centers?
Taylor Higgins: As a firm, that type of work has been interesting to us because it's really grounded in the local communities, and it's also something that's really impactful to people.
Andi [Korber] and I both have children that are between the ages of three and six, so childcare is something that's just really noticeable for us at the moment.
A lot of these providers don't necessarily have the infrastructure or the building or the space to be able to provide more service.
That's what happened, at Little Red [Schoolhouse], they had sort of these outdated buildings that they were making work. They could house about 25 students out of those two buildings, and this building really gave them the opportunity to increase their program size to at least 60 students.
I think just the ability to contribute and create a space that's going to house all of these kids is compelling to us inherently.
Weaver: What are the key considerations in the design process to make sure that the teachers can teach at their best, and that this space can be functional?
Higgins: We spend a lot of time early in the design process, so in conceptual design and schematic design, thinking about how to sight the building in a way that we're really taking advantage of passive energy. Those things are like creating natural daylight in all of the classrooms in a way that's really even.
Natural daylight has such health benefits in terms of your cognitive abilities, your ability to stay focused and engaged.
Also, we vaulted the ceilings. By making them tall it really feels more reasonable to the amount of activity of the quantity of students in a room.
When you put 15 kids into a room that's undersized, for example, it's really loud. It's really hard to find a quiet corner, it's really hard for the teachers to maintain reasonable oversight and it all fuels a higher, more anxious energy from the kiddos.
So by allowing for more space, which sort of spreads out the acoustics, spreads out the activities that are going on, it kind of creates a more calm environment with that many children.
Weaver: Building and developing in the Roaring Fork Valley can obviously be tricky [with] the regulations and the cost. But also, we need this infrastructure, or I think a lot of people would say that. How do you navigate that tension?
Higgins: I would say there's been a pretty regular trend at this point over the past couple of years where construction prices are really surging. It's pretty challenging to try and manage a client's budget just from a design perspective.
What we've really been advising clients and really leaning towards is bringing on a contractor really early in conceptual or schematic design and making sure that we're really building in pricing as we go.
We're doing that now on almost every project, and really trying to scrutinize it with the owner, like, “is this really your budget?” And if it's not, we need to pivot before we continue.
Weaver: You mentioned impact as sort of this guiding force for all of the projects that you choose. Have you been hearing about that from the provider [and] from the people in the community of how they're feeling that impact already?
Higgins: Yeah, I feel like we've gotten a little bit of feedback from chatting with people last week. They're all really excited, I think. In all of our conversations with [the] city council for Snowmass, everyone recognizes this need that so many people have for childcare.
People up here talk about it like, they find out they're pregnant, and they go get on a list just to get a spot. It's so challenging.
So I think they all recognize what an asset it is that Woody Creek [Kids] operates out of Snowmass, local to so many families.
It's really awesome to get to see a brand new facility is going to be built into this place where kids have been going to learn for so many years.
Weaver: What's next for you? Do you have any projects on the horizon?
Higgins: Yeah, we've got a couple coming up. We're always chasing those types of projects we love, the ones that really involve community and involve people's opinions.
Parachute Battlement Mesa is currently in construction documents, and that's another [childcare center] actually, that we're working on with Ford Architects. It's an existing building, and we are using this shell that got built in the 1980s by Exxon, and all of the oil dried up, and they left, and so the building never got finished. We're going to rehab it and put six classrooms in there, as well as the Parks and Rec district offices.
