Teaching Outside the Box

The Cardinal Child Development Center taps into nature and sets a sustainable new standard for redefining early learning.

By Liz Stinson

Just outside the main office of the new Cardinal Child Development Center, a pair of striking cedar trees stretches into the air. Situated in the building’s exterior plaza, they serve as unofficial mascots for the school, which counts nature as its biggest inspiration.

The Cardinal Center sits in the heart of San Bernardino, amid bustling urban life, but it’s designed as an oasis for the young students who attend the school. Opened in November, it’s part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District’s (SBCUSD) efforts to bring world-class early childhood education, including infant, preschool and transitional kindergarten — the term for the educational year between preschool and traditional kindergarten — to students from a wide range of economic backgrounds. Since launching last year, Cardinal has become a symbol of resilience and success for the district, which views it as a blueprint for a new era of more expressive, nature-based learning. And it’s one that could set a fresh standard for education innovation at large.

From the start of the project, SBCUSD saw it as an opportunity to explore beyond the usual early childhood center formula. “They had a goal of going above and beyond the typical context, which would have been a couple of modular classrooms,” says LPA Design Director Ozzie Tapia. “They came to us wanting to build a facility that would be transformational for their community.”

The district’s leaders had a location in mind: a plot of land adjacent to the city’s high school that was once used for its agricultural program. The site was unusually verdant for its location in central San Bernardino, with an array of mature pine, cedar and eucalyptus trees. LPA brought in an arborist, who determined that most of the trees had a long life ahead of them. So, with a goal of saving as many as possible, the integrated team proposed making the trees a major component of the learning experience. Research shows that students — and especially the youngest of learners — benefit from biophilic design and direct exposure to nature, which has been found to increase focus, reduce stress and inspire new problem-solving skills, among other benefits. Thus, “The site led us to develop a nature-based learning curriculum for the school to complement this found gift, the natural setting in the middle of the city,” says Tapia.

With the arborists’ survey in hand, the integrated team designed with and around the trees, letting their arrangement shape how the building was situated on the land. “Ultimately, the trees were the guide for the whole project,” Tapia says.

Al Fresco Education

The resulting 15,000-square-foot structure stretches into an elongated ‘U’ shape that gently wraps around the edge of the property. An adjoining fence along the perimeter creates a rectangular courtyard that serves as the key component to the Cardinal Center’s pedagogical approach. “We worked to create outdoor classrooms in the courtyard so students could flow in and out,” says Kenya Huezo, who led the landscape design of the project for LPA. “It’s an essential part of the teaching space.”

The expansive courtyard is laid out in zones curated to expose students to a variety of sensory experiences, and the building itself is designed as a teaching tool, beginning with the undulating canopy. Students can observe how air moves through cutouts within it, as shade sails dance in the breeze created by the Santa Ana winds. Elsewhere, the rooftop channels rainwater down a chain into the courtyard, where students can watch as it collects in a well before recharging the land — “an opportunity to learn about water conservation,” Tapia notes.

The courtyard has two main play zones — one for infants and toddlers, and another for students around 2–5 — that are connected by a tricycle path. Working with a play equipment vendor called Earthscape, LPA crafted custom playscapes, including a giant climbing structure shaped like a cardinal (a naturalized and prevalent species in San Bernardino) where students can make their way onto the wings or explore nooks underneath. Another zone centers around a forest hut that makes use of the existing trees on site, inspired by an elevated treehouse floating in the canopy.

Throughout the courtyard there are ample additional opportunities for exploration and enrichment, including sand and water instruments, as well as variations in topography that give children an open-ended and tactile experience. “When you compare it to a traditional playground, all of it is very interpretive,” Huezo says. This underscores the importance of imaginative and open-ended play for young children, which child development experts say leads to improved motor skills, cognitive skills, language development and social interaction.

A New Window to the World

A massive sliding door, meanwhile, organically merges the outdoor learning spaces with the interior ones. This design encourages teachers to leave the doors open — even when the weather is hot, thanks to the trees and exterior shaded walkways that keep the site cool — creating a hybrid outdoor/indoor classroom. As, say, the scent of local flowers wafts in, teachers have the opportunity to educate students about the natural world all around them.

“The classroom is meant to be seamless with the exterior and blur the line between the two,” says Victoria Lowell, lead interior designer on the project.

Each classroom has its own colorful identity inspired by flora and fauna found throughout the San Bernardino Valley. The classrooms, whose color-coded doors set the interior palette, are designed to meet the students at their own size — and that required a playful sense of space and materiality. “For once, adults are the ones who have to conform to the scale,” says Tapia. “It’s perfectly sized for children, so they feel right at home.”

To that end, a cubby that’s low to the ground might provide a cozy place for students to burrow during a quiet moment. Classrooms are anchored around a “play wall” that features a series of built-in nooks and ledges designed for discovery. And an elevated window seat and cushy rugs create a safe space for children to climb. “We wanted to create a space where young children can learn to explore and take risks, which is important for their development,” Lowell says.

Unlike traditional classroom design, which often mandates how students should use a space, every wall in Cardinal’s classrooms has an open-ended purpose, encouraging variability and independent thought — such as a pin-up wall that serves as a rotating gallery where students can display their work.

Throughout the classrooms, different acoustic zones and textiles soften the space and once again encourage a connection back to San Bernardino’s natural landscape. The cool concrete flooring evokes the ground outside; soft rugs feature fibers of different heights to encourage movement. The play wall features a vertical strip of ribbed wood that mimics the bark of a tree; the nooks have a wall of colored felt that echoes lichen.

“Ultimately, we wanted to foster a highly haptic and tactile environment,” Lowell says.

Because the team knew they wanted to use photovoltaic panels on the roof, they moved the all-electric mechanical units into small closets and ceiling space inside the building, creating ample room for solar capture. The roof is outfitted with a 91 Kw array that generates enough power to offset the school’s total energy usage. “That also informed where we put the building itself, because the trees could cast significant shade that would diminish the efficiency of the photovoltaic panels,” Tapia says. “We had to preserve the trees but also situate the building in a way that the panels could harness solar energy for renewable power.”

Its ZNE status is a pillar of the project’s overarching goal of being a responsible steward of education for the community. From the start, the district envisioned the Cardinal Center as a gathering space for all. So to create an environment that could flex between children and adults, the integrated LPA team worked with the district to conceive two multipurpose rooms that are accessible directly from the plaza’s breezeway. During the day, they are used for dining and after-school play; in the evening, community members can transform the interior rooms and plaza into a space for meetings and events. “They wanted to find ways to truly provide amenities that the community could use beyond the early childhood education setting,” Tapia says. “It was important to create a civic moment.”

This multipurpose space is now an offering back to the community, which passed partial funding for the center through a school district bond. For many in San Bernardino, Cardinal is a point of civic pride — and its potential impact extends far beyond it, particularly in the educational realm where school facilities are so often defined by inadequate cinder-block rectangles.

“SBCUSD wanted to build the kind of facility that would spark change in people’s mentality about what education looks like,” Tapia says. “And here, they’ve proved to themselves and their community — and the wider education world — that it’s indeed possible.”

Liz Stinson is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. She has covered design for publications including Wired, Fast Company, Architectural Digest and more.