Meeker Avenue, in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, would not spring to mind as an ideal location for a preschool, though it cuts through a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Running alongside the elevated Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the busy thoroughfare has been home to scrappy commercial and industrial businesses for more than a century. Yet in 2019, when educator Nicole Jubran saw that a dilapidated construction-supply warehouse would soon be vacated there, she realized its potential for the early-childhood facility she planned to open. The space, beneath an eight-story residential building, was affordable; it had a visible street presence, two floors, and the square footage she would need for a viable business. It was also close to mass transit, parking, and a popular public park, plusses for parents, caregivers, and staff.
Open since late 2021, City Kids education center is a breath of fresh air on the still-gritty block. Designed by architect Alexandra Barker and the all-woman team at her Brooklyn-based firm, Barker Associates Architecture Office (BAAO), the 11,000-square-foot interior—which houses a preschool, after-school, and summer day camp for 190 children—replaces the cramped bilevel warehouse with a fluid, welcoming environment, visible to passersby through a broad, glass storefront entrance.
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