Kiddie campus makes case for adaptive reuse

A new childcare center set to open at Madison Area Technical College next week will show how adaptive reuse can reduce costs and expedite construction timelines.

Fred Brechlin, director of planning and construction management at the school, said the project to turn an old fire station into the eight-room Goodman South Early Learning Campus came with some unique challenges, but using the bones of the existing building helped cut costs and time. The building also kept some of its original charm, such as the large openings fire trucks used to drive through to respond to calls becoming large windows spanning both floors of the center.

“I think the big thing is adaptive reuse,” he said. “I mean, it was a fire station … but if you look at the building as you drive by it, you could still see the large overhead doors where the fire trucks used to drive through the facility. Those openings, basically, the garage doors were taken off, and openings were filled with insulated glazing into the classrooms.”

But the original building was also constructed before Americans with Disabilities Act compliance was required and featured several intermediate levels with small sets of steps, creating another challenge, Brechlin said.

“That was all taken out, and then the entire first floor was lowered three feet to offer the second floor to go in and still provide clearances within the existing roof structure above,” he added. “So, the engineering for the first floor was a bit of an undertaking.”

Funding for the 100-student facility with roughly 20 teachers was also a challenge, Brechlin said. But the fact that they could reduce costs through reuse made funding the project primarily through grants possible, with $5.95 million of the total $8.45 million coming from gifts and grants.

The whole project, including a small addition to the original footprint, took just about a year to complete.

Unfortunately, there won’t be a shiny brass firepole for staff to respond to emergencies in the new roughly 20,000 square-foot facility. The original building didn’t have one, Brechlin said.