Paul L Dunbar Early Education Center
Project Stats
- Location
Texarkana, Texas
- Size
79,000 SF
- Market
- Expertise
A new beginning for Texarkana’s littlest learners
When Texarkana ISD sought to replace the Paul L Dunbar Early Education Center with a new learning campus for Pre-Kindergarten students, it entrusted Corgan to create a thoughtfully designed school to provide an immersive educational environment that lays a strong foundation for growth and connection. With a capacity for more than 600 students, the school encourages young minds to grow in a welcoming space that embodies the district’s vision for collaboration and openness.
The design prioritizes ample space while ensuring a strong sense of safety for students and staff. To support these goals, the team incorporated abundant natural light, vibrant communal areas and immersive classrooms that encourage curiosity. A fully enclosed outdoor courtyard offers a secure space for enjoying time outside.
Nature’s classroom
Throughout the design process, it was important to ground the school with a connection to nature. The outdoor courtyard invites students to explore and learn through “nature-inspired” play, featuring sloped turf hills, embankment slides and a tricycle track. Gathering spaces in the courtyard are shaded by curved overhangs and leaf-patterned canopies that provide welcoming areas for rest and socialization.
Learning through immersion
Inside the classrooms, learning unfolds through imagination, movement, and discovery. Created in close collaboration with Exhibit Concepts, each classroom is designed as an immersive environment where students can step into a story and through hands-on experience and play.
Four core themes inspired designs and learning opportunities — navigation, investigation, exploration and connection. Under the navigation theme, classroom environments like “Let’s Get Going,” “Wonder Land,” “Space” and “Journey in Time” encourage students to move through space, ask questions, and begin to understand how their world works. Investigation classrooms, including “Farm to Table,” “Pet Central and Vet Clinic,” “Zoo” and “Our World” invite young learners to observe, care for and interact with their surroundings in meaningful ways.
Exploration-themed classrooms transport students to environments such as the “Tropics,” “Ocean,” “Lakes and Rivers,” “Savannah” and “Polar” regions, immersing them in landscapes filled with color, texture and scale. From building igloos alongside a life-size polar bear to discovering plants and animals within a jungle setting, these spaces transform everyday lessons into memorable adventures. The connection theme grounds students in familiar experiences, with classrooms like the “Market and Bakery,” “Construction,” “Community,” “Wonderful Amazing Me” and “Twin Cities” encouraging collaboration, self-awareness and a sense of belonging.
The design language flows seamlessly from shared spaces into the classrooms, using color, graphics and materials to support intuitive movement and comfort. Texarkana-specific details are woven throughout the environments, creating moments of recognition and pride while reinforcing a strong sense of place.
Together, these immersive classrooms blur the line between learning and experience. Designed to grow with students as they rotate through each theme, the spaces support foundational education while fostering curiosity, confidence and connection — setting the stage for a joyful and lasting relationship with learning.
