Maple Street School

The new location for the Maple Street School Preschool in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn is housed on the second floor of The Parkline, Hudson Companies Incorporated and Marvel Architects’ new LEED-GOLD mixed-use and mixed-income complex on Flatbush Avenue. The school project is a joint venture between BAAO and 4|Mativ Design Studio, both based in Brooklyn. Marvel Architects served as the architect of record and collaborated with BAAO and 4|Mativ to bring the project through construction. The design brief called for a program of three open, interconnected classrooms with a shared multi purpose space and roof play space. Maple flooring, surfaces and furniture throughout provide visual unity to the space. Touches of color at details and apertures frame openings between rooms in unexpected yet playful ways.

Location:

Brooklyn, New York

Photographer:

Lesley Unruh

Awards:

AIABQDA Design Award
AIANY Design Award
SARA Award

Publications:

The school’s practice of scheduling “cafe” time, daily group gatherings centered on snacks, led the designers to organize the multipurpose space and cubby area around a central kitchen in the heart of the space. Modeled after a food truck, it has a service windows and counters that fold out when in use. A plexiglass panel will be used to list the daily menu of offerings. All the classrooms open into this space.

The classrooms are partitioned by large pairs of tall maple pocket doors with oval cutouts at different heights to give children and adults different views between spaces. The classrooms are interconnected and can be completely opened up for large school events. Bathrooms in preschools are rather public spaces. For safety and for toilet-training purposes the teachers required visibility into the rooms. The architects turned the bathrooms into focal points, inserting them into the classrooms and incorporating large cutouts in the walls to allow teachers to observe children in two places at once. On the outside walls of the bathrooms, architects designed interconnecting play sinks give the children a peek into the bathroom and also across to the adjacent classroom.

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