South Coast Head Start

A head start in learning

South Coast Head Start’s Coos Bay program engages the minds of young learners and supports educators as they do so. SEA partnered with Oregon Coast Community Action (ORCCA) to design this comprehensive new facility and further enable teaching and learning in an inviting and functional space. Now, South Coast Head Start can welcome 24 toddlers, 120 preschoolers, teachers, and administrators through the doors every day into a place that is truly their own.

Client
ORCCA

Location
Coos Bay, OR

Size
17,000 sf

Year
2014

SEA understood from the beginning that this new building needed to serve multiple purposes while still feeling cohesive. Through our early work with the client, we also learned that engagement with the outdoors was an important aspect of this project. The Southern Oregon coast has a forested landscape that is unique to the region and it played a role in our design’s inspiration.

Connecting to the outdoors is first felt as people approach the walk-up entrance – a two-story windowed atrium visually framed by timber columns welcomes visitors inside. Moving through the building, large windows allow natural light to stream in while also providing views to the trees bordering the site.

South Coast Head Start has seven classrooms that connect to the main activity space and an outdoor garden studio. All of the classrooms have direct access to an outdoor playground and community garden space, further facilitating a relationship with nature.

Along with the classrooms, the Head Start facility provides administrative areas for ORCCA and operations spaces for Head Start. These include a full kitchen, a library, resource rooms, meeting rooms, and staff offices.