ENVIRONMENTAL NATURE CENTER PRESCHOOL

VITAL STATS

TEAM ROSTER

PLACE PETAL

01 LIMITS TO GROWTH IMPERATIVE

The Environmental Nature Center Preschool was designed to provide education through a hands-on experience with nature. The design of the playground area consists of different outdoor classroom spaces that provide multiple activities that respond to particular natural environments. These spaces will encourage children to interact and engage with their natural surroundings and foster creativity and creative play by leaving problem-solving in their hands. Different areas and elements of the site can be manipulated daily to create different characteristics and landscapes.

The reference habitat for the site is the California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion in the greater California bioregion which is comprised of Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub.

All new plant materials planted on the project site, such as Artemesia, Encelia, Mimulus, and Salvia, are native to California. Planting does not utilize supplemental irrigation, fertilizer, or pesticides, just as it would in the native habitat. All non-native plant material was removed from the site prior to the preschool’s development.

This project restores the native landscape consisting of plants found in the coastal sage scrub ecoregion that will aid in the conservation of resources and provide habitat for endangered animals and birds, such as the California gnatcatcher.

I04 HUMAN POWERED LIVING IMPERATIVE

The ENC Preschool is an early childhood education center serving children ages 2- 5 who, of course, are not old enough to walk or ride bicycles safely to and from school. The project site is designed for small humans to explore and experience nature safely once they arrive at school.

ENC Preschool staff are encouraged to walk or cycle to the site. The project includes a staff shower room and both short-term and long-term bike storage.

ENERGY PETAL

The Environmental Nature Center Preschool is a single-story, 5900 square foot preschool facility in Newport Beach, CA, completed in 2019. The building was designed and is being operated as a net-zero energy facility with on-site renewable energy systems offsetting annual energy consumption.

(The Environmental Nature Center also owns and operates an 8,000 square foot visitors’ center, completed in 2009, located on an adjacent site that has operated as a net-positive energy facility for over ten years.)

The enclosed areas of the Preschool building are naturally ventilated via operable windows, operable partitions, and manually controlled operable wall louvers. Space heating is supplied via radiant slab heating systems served by heat pump water heaters. Interior and exterior lighting systems are designed to be energy efficient and to complement abundant daylighting. Laundry, kitchen, and water heating appliances are energy-efficient and all-electric. There is no on-site combustion of fossil fuels.

A 32 kW rooftop photovoltaic system offsets the facility’s energy use on an annual basis — including the consumption of three electric vehicle charging stations.

EQUITY PETAL

I16 UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO NATURE + PLACE

The ENC preschool was designed and constructed such that the project does not diminish the quality of fresh air, sunlight, and natural waterways for neighboring homes, buildings, or sites. The preschool has no on-site emissions, does not block views from or cast shadows on adjacent sites, and is developed to support natural drainage flows in the neighborhood. The facility was designed to preserve mature shade trees both on and adjacent to the project site, with the preschool building and photovoltaic system located in the least shaded area of the property to maintain the existing shade trees without limiting photovoltaic energy generation.

I17 EQUITABLE INVESTMENT

The Environmental Nature Center is a non-profit 501(c)-3 public benefit corporation located in Newport Beach, CA, and founded in 1972. https://encenter.org/donate/

The ENC employs 18 staff who provide education through hands-on experience with nature. The ENC provides educational programs to thousands of local children each year and relies primarily on community donations to support its operations.

In 2019, the ENC opened the Nature Preschool that educates 72 children daily, engages parents in active learning, serves as a model nature preschool, and provides a research forum on early childhood and environmental education. The preschool is part of a non-profit organization. It relies on both donations and tuition to support nature-based early child education for neighborhood families regardless of their ability to pay.

ENC Nature Preschool is a developmental play-based emergent curriculum where children’s ideas, inquiries, discoveries, and investigations are nurtured and implemented. With hands-on daily experiences, children acquire a deep, intuitive understanding of nature and the natural world. Engagement in the environment and with others is where real learning occurs.

The ENC Nature Preschool is actively and equitably investing in its students and community.

Overall project costs for the ENC Preschool were approximately $8M, including land, soft costs, construction hard costs, and furnishings, fixtures, and equipment. The vast majority of the funds for the project were raised from local donors who contribute to the Environmental Nature Center as an essential community and educational resource.

I18 JUST ORGANIZATIONS

The project design firm, LPA, engaged in a process to review and obtain the JUST Label, partially inspired by our work with the ENC Preschool pursuing Living Building Challenge Petal Certification.

LPA achieved the JUST Label for our company in 2021 and renewed it in 2023. The process of becoming a JUST Organization allowed our firm to evaluate and refine various company policies and initiatives in an effort to be a more just and equitable company.

BEAUTY PETAL

I19 BEAUTY + SPIRIT

The ENC Preschool celebrates the spirit of learning through nature and nature play.

The ENC Preschool uses a developmental play-based emergent curriculum where children’s ideas, inquiries, discoveries, and investigations are nurtured and implemented. With hands-on daily experiences, children acquire a deep, intuitive understanding of nature and the natural world. Engagement in the environment and with others is where real learning occurs.

Students are greeted each morning by large, artist-designed sliding panels depicting the evolution of a leaf, which creates view portals into the outdoor collaborative spaces. These panels are designed to provide protection during the day as well as dramatic patterns of shadow and light through the outdoor gathering spaces. These light patterns evolve throughout the day depending on the sun’s movement. In addition, bird and butterfly shapes are created through bent metal and inhabit the structure of the space, providing opportunities for donor recognition.

Outdoor musical instruments provide the opportunity for students to create music on rustically designed and constructed musical instruments, designed by local artists to provide a distinct connection for the students to art, nature, and music while also encouraging creativity and social skills.

I20 INSPIRATION + EDUCATION

The Preschool is part of a great campus led by the ENC, the ENC is a community center for education about nature, and now its Preschool is a place where early learners can be immersed in nature during their developmental years daily. When students pull up to the ENC Preschool, they will know this is a place for them. It’s slightly more playful than the original ENC and shows progress in sustainable design. Breaking down the building into two masses brings nature through the building. The building is bisected by nature, blending seamlessly into the spaces.

The relationship between the ENC Preschool and the original ENC emphasizes early education about nature and sustainability. Everything about this school and its curriculum will support early education, contributing to the mission of the ENC even more effectively than its original center.

This is a facility designed for kids to get involved in nature. Students will feel “off the grid” in more ways than one, inspiring them to be hands-on and in tune with the environment rather than watching it on a screen. They have a kitchen on-site to grow and prepare their own food. Everything about it is about how to connect better with the environment.

Tours will be more frequent than just annually. In fact, tours will technically be often for any parent looking to enroll their child in preschool. The Preschool will be open at least three times a year with expanded co-hosted events with the ENC itself. The Preschool and Center will also offer several summer camps and special events. The Annual tours (postponed due to the pandemic) usually occur in the Fall before the fall quarter school year (Aug./Sept.), Winter (Jan.), and Summer (May/June).