Saint Louis Park, Minnesota

Rise Early Learning Center

Assessing an early childhood project through the lens of trauma-informed design

When school environments are safe, nurturing, and responsive to unique contextual challenges, they can reduce negative impacts, helping occupants to recover, learn, and thrive. Rise Early Learning, a first-of-its-kind early childhood education facility in the state of Minnesota, stands as a testament to how design rooted in care and healing can transform the learning experience for children, staff, and caregivers. The new space redefines early childhood education by weaving care, play, and healing into every aspect of its design.

As a tenant within an affordable housing community funded by Common Bond Communities and designed by Kaas Wilson Architects, Rise Early Learning offers affordable childcare paired with affordable housing and wrap-around services—easing the cost burden for its families, making high-quality, affordable childcare available to those who would otherwise not have access.

Cuningham was the design architect for the early childhood education space, helping the project adhere to the client's three guiding design principles: trauma-informed design, equity, and play. These principles are reflected in every detail of Rise Early Learning’s physical environment.

Client: Rise Early Learning Center

Market: Education

Size: 7,020 Square Feet

Scope: New Construction

Services: Architecture, Interior Design

Delivery Method: Negotiated Contract

Key Project Contacts:

Heidi Neumueller

Hailey Wrasman

Promoting Ease and Comfort

To promote a sense of ease, Rise Early Learning’s interior spaces are filled with calming materials and patterns, while strategic transparency creates visual connections and floods the center with natural light. Sensory materials and mirrors at child height spark imagination and aid in development. Thoughtful integration of private spaces ensures dignity and security for staff and learners alike, with areas for quiet reflection and secure storage.

Building Community and Connection

Beyond supporting individual well-being, the environment encourages connection and community. A central play space acts as the heart of the facility, offering equitable access to play and fostering moments of interaction among children, caregivers, and teachers. Communal gathering areas and opportunities to showcase artwork help further celebrate creativity and build community. The careful balance of these elements creates a nurturing, responsive environment where all who enter feel welcomed, supported, and inspired.

There are two issues that we always hear about when we meet with communities: housing and childcare. Rise on 7 is a nation leading model of doing both on the same site and it’s incredible. I can’t think of a project that more embodies how we take care of each other, other than this project.

Peggy Flannagan

Minnesota Lieutenant Governor

Trauma Informed Design in Action

At Rise Early Learning, Cuningham used the firm’s research on trauma-informed design principles to reframe questions asked early in the design process, ultimately leading to the prioritization of six guiding strategies:

Beauty and meaning
Dignity and self-esteem
Empowerment and personal control
Security, privacy and personal space
Sense of community
Stress management

By engaging Rise Early Learning’s community members in co-creative workshops that explored a range of design solutions within these six strategies, not only did Cuningham create a supportive environment, but one that actively helps occupants recover, learn, and thrive. These strategies come to life at Rise Early Learning, creating an environment where design and well-being coexist seamlessly.

1. Beauty and Meaning

Beauty and Meaning - Trauma Informed Design Strategy — Rise Early Learning fosters beauty and meaning through feature elements in public areas that spark curiosity and imagination, mirrors and sensory materials at child height, strategic transparency between spaces, soothing flooring and ceiling patterns, ample daylight and views to the outdoors.

2. Dignity and Self Esteem

Rise Early Learning enhances dignity and self-esteem by providing private spaces for staff, multiple dedicated staff restrooms, indirect wall-washing lighting fixtures near mirrors and reflective surfaces, spaces where parents, staff, and learners can interact, and grab bars in learning studios to support staff well-being bending up and down all day.

3. Empowerment and Personal Control

Design strategies supporting empowerment and personal control include opportunities to personalize spaces through display walls for artwork, writable, magnetic, and Velcro walls for self-expression and learning, and flexible furniture that encourages discovery, play, and risk-taking, fostering neurological development.

4. Security, Privacy & Personal Space

Security, privacy, and personal space are prioritized through a secure vestibule at the project’s entry sequence, quiet spaces for both staff and learners, dedicated storage and restroom facilities for staff, window seats that offer an indoor connection to nature while providing a place of refuge in learning studios.

5. Sense of Community

To foster a sense of community, Rise Early Learning features a gathering space near the main entry, pin-up areas in public spaces, visual connections to the exterior, central play space as the heart of the project, offering equitable access for all age groups, and "The Den," a cozy nook linking the infant and toddler rooms, where caregivers can say goodbye and children can ease into their day with imaginative, self-directed play.

6. Stress Management

Stress management strategies include areas with heated flooring for play and rest, acoustic wall paneling for sound management, abundant natural light, ample connections to outdoor play areas designed within the natural landscape, and floor-to-ceiling windows that allow infants and toddlers to view the outdoors while sitting on the floor.

"At Rise Early Learning, the transformative power of design proves that when environments are built with care, they nurture not only growth and learning, but also a sense of belonging and community."