A YMCA-operated facility, the Gateway Childcare Center considers outdoor play and learning to be an extension of the center’s indoor activities. Accordingly, CMG designed the center’s sunny and protected outdoor play spaces to transition seamlessly from the inside of the building. The center’s large open space is punctuated by an earthwork planted with native grasses that wiggles across the site like a giant fuzzy caterpillar. The gesture of the earthwork is contrasted by an allee of poplars that delineates pedestrian traffic while screening parking areas and blocking wind.