Harvard Yard Child Care Center

Triumph designed, built, and installed an innovative 5,700 square-foot daycare facility on the campus of Harvard University in just six weeks. For eighteen months, this modular school building will first house the Harvard Yard Child Care Center, and then the Oxford Street Daycare Cooperative, while their permanent locations are being renovated.

The building features a variety of green, sustainable features to achieve the highest-quality, healthy environment for children. A focused design and construction plan for maximum energy efficiency includes solar tube skylights to maximize natural light use, sustainable “Green Guard” insulation, high-grade sealants, and a white rubber roof that reflects solar heat.  Coordinated sensors and electronic control of the lighting system turn off lights when there is no activity in the room. Other features of the Child Care Center include exterior sun shades that shield the interior of the facility from the sun and reduce the need for air conditioning, recycled materials for the interior walls and carpet tiles, and a state-of-the-art HVAC system that regulates and brings in air from the outside as needed.

“The building actually learns over time from the occupancy patterns and adjusts the ventilation appropriately,” said Peter/Mark Anderson of Anderson and Anderson in San Francisco, which designed the Harvard Yard Child Care Center. “When you walk inside there is an immediate sense that this is a healthy environment. That’s a good comfort for parents and staff.”

Once Harvard completes renovations on its permanent child care centers, the fully relocatable Triumph building – which has a 50-year lifespan – will be placed into service elsewhere.