CSUN Hires Architect for Day-Care Center

Cal State Northridge, which announced in October its plans to build a new on-campus day-care facility for the children of its students, faculty and community members, has recently hired an architect to design the center, officials said.

Architect Jean Amador of Westlake Village-based Amador-Whittle Architects, will design the 10,000-square-foot Associated Students Children’s Center, budgeted to cost about $2 million, said Arlene Rhine, director of the facility.

“I have been studying architecture of children’s centers for several years, and I felt Jean Amador was someone who would be willing to listen to my input and then give advice to best finishes and best type of construction,” Rhine said. “Her job is to tell us what we can get for $2 million.”

The existing center, located in two converted houses on Plummer Street on the west side of campus, serves daily up to 78 children between ages 2 and 5.

Rhine said the new facility will initially serve 125 children, and services will be expanded to include infants and an after-school program for children up to age 7.

“You can’t make a center too large because it won’t allow you to do quality care,” she said.

“We’re striving for personal care and individual attention.”

There is a one-year waiting list for the day-care center, but Rhine said the list could become longer when the new facility opens, tentatively scheduled for spring 1999.

“When the new center opens, we will start a new waiting list for babies,” she said.

The new center will be built on the site of the existing facility, which will be demolished in June. The child-care center will be temporarily relocated until the new facility opens.

For information, contact the center at (818) 677-2012.