Horizons Design

Horizons Design has been working with corporate, institutional and non-profit clients since 1996 to create world class children's environments. Our design experience is focused on child care centers, elementary schools and children's outdoor environments although we have also designed Bright Horizons' US and European corporate headquarters, multi-purpose community buildings and various other project types.

Our philosophy dictates very high expectations for all of our projects but that we adjust our design strategy to maximize the potential of each situation based on budget, site and context. We have worked with many different project delivery systems including design-build, pre-manufactured building components and custom cabinetry and play equipment.

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Our projects also span a wide range of site conditions from the tallest office building in Japan to an urban infill site in New Jersey to a wooded site in Georgia and a windswept hillside in Ireland. We continue to learn from the wide variety of settings and cultures that we work with and bring both a wealth of experience and a willingness to think outside the box to each new project.

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Bayer Pharmaceuticals commitment to employee satisfaction and retention at their West Haven CT campus led them to partner with Bright Horizons and Horizons Design to design and operate a new child development center serving 144 children infants through school age. The 13,400 SF "L" shaped building is designed with a simple, horizontal street façade intended to be welcoming but modest and harmonious with the surrounding buildings and landscape.

Inside the "L", the building has a more playful character in keeping with the nature of the sheltered south-facing play garden. Each wing has a distinct identity. more...

The single story infant/toddler section is characterized by a broad sheltering roof overhang and gently curving wall in the activity area. The two story preschool/school age wing is identified by its three towers and north facing arched window. Throughout the center, the design emphasizes visual and spatial connections between indoors and out.

The building was constructed with pre-fabricated wall panels on a fast-track schedule and was designed to facilitate future expansion. A 10,000 square foot expansion was built 4 years after the completion of the original building. Horizons Design provided full architectural services for this project. back...

Bayer Children's Center
West Haven CT

Size: 13,400 SF
Capacity: 144 children
Completion: 1998

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IBM Children's Center
Blanchardstown, Ireland

Size: 7,800 SF
Capacity: 92 children
Completion: 2002

After an international search process, IBM selected Horizons Design and Bright Horizons to design, build, and operate a cutting edge Child Care Centre serving families of IBM and other corporations just west of Dublin. As one of the first Bright Horizons projects in Europe and Horizons Design's first building in Ireland, this design explores creative ways to integrate Bright Horizon's best practices with Ireland's unique child care traditions. The center's inviting courtyard shelters the children from rain and wind while softening the transition from inside to outside. On the inside, the cheerful colors and lofty spaces create a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. The first floor classrooms offer flexible design and light open spaces while the second floor school age program features a library and a café and is geared to the needs of older children.

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Duke University Children's Center
Durham NC.

Size: 6,900 SF
Capacity: 153 children
Completion: 2004

When Duke University decided to relocate their offsite child care center onto the historic Durham Campus, Horizons Design helped to convert a less than picturesque brick structure in to a functional, friendly, child development center. Shortly thereafter, the center full with a waiting list, Duke once again called on Horizons Design to head up a design team to expand the center and create a building that would be compatible with the rest of the campus. Wrapping the existing building in a new brick and clapboard expansion, the project increased the capacity by 77 children, created a new courtyard play area and won the prestigious President's Award for the high quality of the project and for meeting the very aggressive project schedule. more...

The architecture uses the courtyard, colonnade, and tower elements from the campus architecture in an overall composition that blends with the existing building to create light, highly functional spaces for children and staff in an efficient building envelope that is at home on the Duke campus. back...

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JM Family

Size: 14,000 SF
Capacity: 152 children
Completion: 2002

The exterior architectural aesthetic of this south Florida center responds to the corporate image of the other buildings on campus, the large covered walkway extends across the front of the site, welcoming families and children. The focal point of the interior space is an art studio surrounded by a large gross motor room and the living rooms for each of the two family groupings. The high ceilings and clerestory lighting animate this space. This building also houses a school age component with a café style kitchen.

Horizons Design had primary responsibility for programming, schematic design and design development and collaborated with Donaldson Group Architects through the remainder of the process.

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Pfizer Kids
Groton CT.

Size: 32,400 SF
Capacity: 360 children
Completion: 2000

Having worked with Bright Horizons and Horizons Design to create and expand their original childcare center in renovated space in 1993, Pfizer decided to partner with us again to help them realize their vision of a world class children's center to serve the needs of all of their Groton employees. Understanding that Pfizer wanted a "big center that felt like a small center", we proposed an innovative strategy; create a center composed of "family groupings", mixed groups of classrooms including infants, toddlers and preschoolers. This organization eases transitions, promotes continuity of care and sibling interaction and gives the building the feel of several smaller centers within a center. Working with CUH2A, an architecture firm with a long history with Pfizer, as the architects of record, the team transferred this concept to a gently sloping wooded site in Groton. In the final design, the family groupings step down the hill linked by a gradual ramp that widens as it approaches each living room area. more...

The living rooms become tall volumes that let natural light pour in from above. The sloping roofs punctuated by the living room volumes articulate a clean rhythm and create a welcoming, residential scale that belies the buildings large capacity. The tall, dark blue tower anchors the composition and serves as the entry.

The Pfizer center also contains several community spaces that allow for many children to congregate. The large vaulted common space near the reception area is ideal for gross motor play and large group activities. Often, the energy and activity within this room spill out onto the concrete amphitheater built into the landscape. Situated on a large, rustic site, the Pfizer playground celebrates nature as an opportunity for scientific exploration and discovery. back...

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O'Brien Family Center
PNC Bank ― Pittsburgh, PA

Size: 8,000 SF
Capacity: 48 Children
Completion: 2000

PNC Bank's decision to include backup child care in their new state of the art First Side Center complex led them to partner with Horizons Design to bring their vision to reality. This center consists of a school age program and a back-up program for infant through pre-school.

The free-flowing, open floor plan is inspired by the Pittsburg children's museum and inspired by Pittsburgh icons such as Fort Pitt, the three rivers and several bridges. The theme of bridges is carried throughout with the sweeping span of the Smithfield Avenue bridge defining a preschool play space. Smaller child-size bridges cross the blue linoleum "rivers" which border the Fort Pitt play tower. The rivers converge in a curving mosaic tile water table. This highly animated, artistically colorful space brings out the child in everyone who enters. more...

Large rotating doors separate PNC's school-age program from the back-up care. Equally as dynamic, the school age space contains an art studio, a library, a café, and a computer loft.

Horizons Design carried this project through design development. A local architecture firm, LDA Companies, produced the working drawings. back...

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P&G Childcare Center
Albany,GA.

Size: 6,800 SF
Capacity: 54 children
Completion: 2004

Nestled in a densely wooded setting on Procter and Gamble's Manufacturing Campus, the 6,800 square foot center is designed to feel and operate as a second home for its children and families. Inspired by the warmth and richness of a southern farm ranch, this uniquely-modern center pulls its guests along a covered walkway defined on one edge by a cedar slat wall which allows partial glimpses into the "backyard" play areas while also generating dramatic effects with light and shadow. more...

The center can accommodate children from 3 months to 12 years old in a warm sensory-rich environment that also provides overnight care for children of shift workers at the plant. The four classrooms for younger children are all designed to be light and welcoming and are grouped together to encourage sibling interaction. The heart of the building contains a large open family room, dining area, kitchen and an art studio serving both the younger children and the school age "clubhouse" which provides an age appropriate setting for older children. back...

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Tabard Square Children’s Center
London, England

Size: 7,000 SF
Capacity: 96 children
Completion: January 2006

Designed to be an integral part of the new community created with the construction of Berkeley Homes new Tabard Square development near the London Bridge in London, this center serves children from infancy through 5 years old. The school meets the challenges of a restricted Urban site by incorporating a shared indoor "piazza" area, by creating light open spaces and by focusing views on to the adjacent courtyard. The classroom design allows for flexibility, and variety in activity areas and encourages project work, and interaction between adjacent classes. Horizons Design was the lead Architect and responsible for all architectural and engineering services while the construction and overall development of the project was overseen by the construction department of Bright Horizons.

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Landmark Tower Child Care Center
Yokohama, Japan.

Size: 3,200 SF
Capacity: 35 children
Completion: January 2006

This trail blazing early care and education center is one of the first in Japan to focus on dual language acquisition from a very early age. The center's founder came to Horizons Design on a recommendation from the Harvard School of Education and we were very interested in participating in the project.

We began the process with benchmarking visits to child care centers in Japan and interviews with Japanese early education specialists. Once the basic concepts were agreed upon and the parameters of the space established (the center is located in one of the largest office complexes in Japan), the schematic design was completed in our offices in Boston. more...

The final design and detailing was worked out in a series of marathon workshops with our collaborating architects in Japan. The finished center incorporates Japanese spatial and cultural norms along with the specific needs of the curriculum while the architectural expression strikes a balance between modern functionality and culturally recognizable design elements. back...

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JFK Charter School
West Palm Beach,FL.

Size: 45,000 SF
Capacity: 550 children
Completion: August 2004

The JFK Charter school in Palm Beach County, Florida is a workplace sponsored primary school serving 550 children, K-5 years.

The school is designed to contain four small family groupings which with its own common/dinning area. The classroom design allows for program flexibility, project work and interaction between classes. The school is organized around a landscaped central courtyard and has a large gym activity area. The building will total 45,000 square feet on large site less that a mile from JFK Medical Center campus.

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SAS Institute Child Development Center
Model Natural Playground
Cary, NC

Size:
Capacity:
Completion: January 2006

When SAS Institute decided to double the size of its child development center in Cary NC, they tasked Bright Horizons and Horizons Design with the design, construction, and operation of the expansion. Site constraints dictated the construction of a separate building rather than an extension of the existing building.

The design team soon saw the potential for realizing SAS's goal of incorporating more natural play elements in the space between the existing and new building. With input from SAS and the Bright Horizons operations team, we decided to develop a "Model" natural playground to develop design ideas that could be used in future outdoor play designs. more...

Horizons Design assembled a team that included internationally recognized children's environment expert Jim Greenman, natural play guru Robin Moore from the Natural Learning Initiative at NC State in Raleigh NC, along with a local architect and landscape architect.

The design is organized by a series of winding pathways and includes separate infant and toddler areas, a bird blind, a water sprinkler area, a stream bed and gardening areas as well as countless small natural spaces that encourage all kinds of exploration and imaginative play.

The center has, in fact, become a very successful model with hundreds of visitors each year including design and education students from local universities. back...

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