UAW-Ford Family Services and Learning Centers
2002 Michigan ASLA Honor Award

A comprehensive center for the UAW Ford workers, the Family Services and Learning Center is a unique facility offering 24 hour daycare services and a center for gathering, continuing education, and training. Beckett & Raeder, Inc. served as a consultant to Ghafari Associates, LLC in which close collaboration between the two firms allowed for a blending of the indoor and outdoor spaces where each classroom becomes a “home base," with its own “backyard."

The outdoor components are broken down into four areas: the overall site planting, the entry court, the courtyard, and the playground. The overall plan addresses each unique site that the facility is located on, looking at community ordinances, screening the facility from unwanted views, and blending the facility into the surrounding landscape. The entry court is a quiet, outdoor room where parents can interact with their kids before dropping them off for the day.

The center courtyard is completely child-oriented. Features such as a custom designed wind chime with colorful banners allow children to “see” wind as well as hear it; moon phases painted in the concrete; and various paving materials to encourage discovery and exploration.

The playground’s design allows each child to choose his own world. Some travel through the prairie or woodland, while others plant and pick vegetables from the old-fashioned garden. Children can gather together in open spaces for outdoor art classes or spend some quiet time tucked away in the butterfly garden. With an eye toward different stages of early development, the playground provides many levels of experience for all of its age groups, from infants to toddlers to preschoolers and “schoolagers”. Sand boxes, climbers, a water spray station, and a raceway for trikes all engage children at different stages.

The Ford Family Services and Learning Center has become an anchor in the community, providing care for over 200 children, offering outreach and technical training to adults and drawing new people to the area. The outdoor spaces are key to how people both big and small experience the facility.

Ford Family Services Learning Centers Locations
Dearborn, Michigan
Kansas City, Missouri
Louisville, Kentucky
Lynwood, Illinois
Middleburg Heights, Ohio
Shelby Township, Michigan
Sterling Heights, Michigan
Wayne, Michigan
Woodhaven, Michigan
Ypsilanti, Michigan