Bringing life and definition to the southern corner of Bellingham’s emerging Waterfront District, the recently completed Millworks Family Housing project provides over 80 units of affordable housing for families under 50% and 60% of the area median income. The building includes a new early learning center (ELC) on the ground floor of the north wing, which will be home to the YMCA’s Downtown ELC program. Accommodating a range of ages from infant to pre-school, the center includes six classrooms, a warming kitchen, a laundry room, and a staff office with views to the outdoors that allow for natural surveillance of the front entry area. Site elements include a pick up/drop off loop adjacent to the building entrance, as well as dedicated ELC playground spaces.
Design considerations was inclusive of the user experience, focusing on the daily routines of families, children, and staff. Indoor-outdoor relationships are fostered through the placement of multiple windows with sills at child height. The classrooms include a variety of storage types and, depending on the classroom age range, diapering stations and/or children toileting facilities with adjacent hand washing sinks. The diaper changing layouts are positioned to face the classroom, allowing for continued teacher supervision of classroom activities. The degree of privacy of the toileting facilities is based on the age of the children. Materials were selected both for their beauty and durability with pops of color on accent walls, p-lam wainscot panels behind sinks, and at the back panel of the cubbies.