Building Blocks Montessori & Preschool

The development of new residential communities in the Town of Milton has generated a demand for convenient local school options for young children. This Montessori and Preschool will use an existing 6000 sq.ft family home as the basis for a school facility for 98 children under age 6. Licensed through the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the facility is designed to meet the “planning and design guidelines for child care centres” which is the basis for design of day care centres throughout Ontario.

Using the existing spaces, the class sizes were determined based on available room areas. New washrooms and kitchen facilities were added into the existing building. Site servicing, new car parking, new hydro, and sanitary & water services were all required to respond to the increased use of the property. Heating, Ventilating & Air Conditioning load for the increased number of occupants was also accommodated within the existing building. There are only minimal changes to the exterior of the building, so as to give a continued residential, small scale feeling to the school.

This project also involved the rezoning of the property as a result of the change in use from residential to commercial. The rezoning process requires all aspects of the development to be investigated to determine whether the intensified use can be accommodated with the existing infrastructure: Acoustic analysis to determine the impact on neighbours of air conditioning units, traffic study to determine the additional traffic load on the adjacent street, and a servicing system study to determine if the existing sewers have adequate capacity to accommodate the additional plumbing fixtures.