Adah Fulbright Early Childhood Center

The new Adah Fulbright Early Childhood Center is a 36,000 sf. new school facility for four and five-year-old students. A design collaboration between Sapp Design Architects and Paragon Architecture led to the development of a two-story building containing a rooftop deck play area, covered outdoor play areas, activity spaces, a STEM water table, a tornado-safe room/ music and art room, a P.E. space, administrative space, a serving kitchen, and 12 classrooms with shared restrooms, storage, and offices between classroom pairs.

The building is situated on a sloping site overlooking South Creek, the South Creek Greenway Trail, and the surrounding treeline. The natural features and restrictions of the site brought inspiration to the concept, the building located on the site, and the building features. The concept was to design a building that is inspired by nature and becomes an inherent component of its context. The building emerges from the hillside and transcends into the tree canopy, becoming an abstracted modern treehouse.