Healthcare · Commercial · Restaurants — Jacksonville, FL

Projects · Commercial

Kiddie Academy

A 10,000 square foot child care facility for up to 170 children, with a ventilation system borrowed from surgery centres.

10,000 sq ft · 170 children, 20 staff · 14975 Walden Springs Way, Jacksonville, FL

Exterior of the Kiddie Academy child care centre in Jacksonville, Florida

Air clean enough for an operating theatre

Working with the Kiddie Academy franchisee and the local owners, ACT designed a state-of-the-art child care facility for up to 170 children aged 0 to 5, plus a staff of 20. The brief was a building that parents would trust on sight — and that holds up to 190 people moving through it every day.

The ventilation system is equipped with ultraviolet lighting that kills 99.7% of airborne germs on the first pass and 100% on the second, making this the first childcare centre to use technology taken from surgery centres. For a building full of children under five, that is the specification that matters most.

The centre also has a full commercial kitchen capable of delivering 200 meals twice a day, and a nearly 4,000 square foot portico outside that keeps up to eight cars at a time out of the Florida weather at drop-off and pick-up. Kiddie Academy has more than 150 locations nationwide and has led education-based child care for 35 years; the Jacksonville location follows a curriculum built around each child's intellectual, social, physical and emotional growth.

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