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Designed for tots, early childhood center earns Merit Award
Covenant Early Child Development Center near Paseo del Norte and Eubank NE, which was recognized for its design.
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It was located on county land with minimal access to municipal services, and the building needed to be designed to make sure infants through pre-kindergartners were comfortable.
Those were some of the challenges facing SMPC Architects during its design of the Covenant Early Child Development Center, which was recognized with a NAIOP Award of Excellence 2024 in the education category. It earned a Merit Award.
The building is located near Paseo del Norte and Eubank NE, which is outside of the city limits in Bernalillo County. That meant that architects had to plan to supply water, build a fire suppression storage tank, a new septic system and a water collection tank, according to SMPC documents that described the project.
The firm started working on the building design in 2022, after having worked with Covenant on prior campuses.
"They really loved our floor plan. ... We modified it slightly because there's been some changes in early childhood education, so were really thinking, 'OK, let's bring them some new ideas,'" said Erik Mease, a principal architect at SMPC.
For example, Mease said the restrooms were designed in a way that give children privacy but also allow teachers to monitor their students. There's a design on the wall of the building 48 inches off the ground to make the building more inviting and interesting for young students, and different classrooms were designed for students of different ages.
One of the highlights of the building, Mease said, is a central corridor that was designed so that the school could have chapel services in the morning.
"It's a space that's connecting all the spaces that they use," Mease said. "They get together and sing songs and play games and do stuff like that as a whole school, so the corridor became really important. So we celebrated that corridor by opening it up."
Mease said the firm and early child care center have forged a positive working relationship.
"It's a really great community. We met with parents and they were excited," he said. "They call themselves a school for a reason. They see themselves as educating kids. It's not a day care."
