Edgerley Family Horizons Center. Roxbury, MA

First-of-its-kind in Massachusetts, the 140,000 SF Edgerley Family Horizons Center provides critical services for the community with a focus on supporting families navigating the many complexities of homelessness. It features a 45,000 SF Early Education Center and Horizons for Homeless Children headquarters, designed View Video by studioMLA Architects. It also includes a new clinic for Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, also designed by studioMLA. The rest of the building houses Department of Children and Families regional office, the national offices of YouthBuild USA, the Boston office of Room to Grow, and a locally owned restaurant.

The Early Education Center combines three existing Horizons Child Care Centers into one, serving 234 children, ages two months to five years. In addition to high-quality early education, it provides comprehensive family support services. It includes a STEAM activity space, a Family Library and Literacy Center, shared and private office space, intake rooms, meeting rooms, flexible community and training space, and outdoor play and learning spaces. Indoor and outdoor spaces incorporate trauma-informed design strategies to better support the children and families they serve.

studioMLA provides full A/E services for the Horizons for Homeless Children facilities and the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program clinic, and collaborated with Embarc Studio for the building core and shell. The Center welcomed families April 2021.

Services Provided

Architectural and landscape design of indoor and outdoor environment; full design services from Programming through Construction Administration.

*Project completed as studioMLA Architects prior to acquisition by Ashley McGraw Architects

Trauma-informed Approach

The Edgerley Family Horizons Center primarily serves children of families experiencing homelessness. The Center was designed to reflect a trauma-informed approach. Trauma-informed care is defined as utilizing practices that promote a culture of safety, empowerment, and healing. Trauma-informed care recognizes and responds to the signs, symptoms, and risks of trauma to better support the health needs of individuals who have experienced adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress. For the families that Horizons serves, these practices are especially important. A wide variety of enhancement spaces support developmentally appropriate activities. The center includes a STEAM activity space, a Family Library and Literacy Center, shared and private office space, intake rooms, meeting rooms, flexible community and training space, and outdoor play & learning spaces.

In-Depth Design

Many centers for low-income children in Boston and elsewhere don’t meet childcare facilities’ basic design standards. studioMLA worked with Horizons and the Children’s Investment Fund (CIF) to ensure that best practices were incorporated into the center, from appropriate square footage per child to natural light, proper ventilation, and well designed outdoor space. The facility supports spaces where children receive various therapies and early intervention services, while maintaining a comfortable environment in both classroom and playground settings.

Both Horizons and studioMLA were conscious of including educators, staff, therapists, and the center’s administration team in the design process, as their insights about working within this population were invaluable. studioMLA Architects also spent time observing the existing centers to better understand the ways in which the design could better support the center’s pedagogical and therapeutic goals. Through this collaborative process, the Horizons team knew they were being heard and had a voice in the design of the space. While this is a typical approach for studioMLA, Horizons was very rigorous and insistent that it happened in a thoughtful way for their staff and teachers.

To complement the interior spaces, the Edgerley Family Horizons Center provides an additional 10,000 SF in outdoor rooftop playspaces. The play spaces provide a safe and protected space for children to explore outdoor learning in the heart of an urban neighborhood.

Conclusion & Lessons Learned

Thoughtful consideration can improve the design and experience of children’s environment in the following ways:

Early client/end-user involvement yields valuable results - charrettes, focus groups with teachers, and administrative staff helped inform design decisions.
Incorporating trauma-informed design principles into both interior and exterior spaces promotes a cohesive and welcoming feel for the entire program. Calming colors, clear wayfinding, varied lighting, and cozy corners helped staff and students feel comfortable and safe in the center and the Headquarters.
Holistic thinking and diligent coordination between the client, design team, and contractors, resulted in creative problem-solving.
- For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the team took a week-long pause to consider what was needed to support both short-and long-term COVID-time operations.