ALPHABET ACADEMY – NORTH CAMPUS

Founded in 2004, Alphabet Academy & The Nest is a network of early childhood schools with a singular purpose: preserving childhood in the modern world. Serving infants through kindergarten across multiple Connecticut campuses, the school is driven by a mission to nurture each child's intellectual, creative, physical, and social potential. CWA has worked with the founder over the years, designing several of the schools, in Hamden, Branford and most recently in Fairfield.

Our first two projects included an existing daycare (South Campus) and an early 19^th century colonial structure (North Campus) that had served as a restaurant, both in Hamden, CT. North Campus entailed a comprehensive exterior and interior renovation. Ten years prior, the original 1800’s colonial structure had been adapted from a restaurant into the second early childhood school. Exterior upgrades included full window unit replacements, new cementitious horizontal clapboard siding on the main structure, vertical board and batten PVC siding on the wings, an expanded and code-compliant main entrance platform with a new roof above, and a new front door. Interior work featured refinished wide-board original floors and new wood plank flooring in the hallway and playground-facing bathroom.

Housed in a former local restaurant, the campus features expansive outdoor play areas and an organic garden where children grow and enjoy food prepared in the on-site commercial kitchen — a living expression of the school's philosophy in action.

Two years after the Academy was in full operation, the founder commissioned CWA to design an addition, the Annex. The two-classroom addition is separated from the existing building by an outdoor space while being connected by an enclosed corridor that transverses the open space. Each classroom accommodates eight two-year-old students and two staff members.