Windows span from floor to ceiling to let in the light and display the changing skies. High ceilings were important because children are always looking up at adults. Most nursery schools are in church basements or old Victorians with low ceilings, cheap flooring and not enough land. The outside constantly beckons. Radiant heat in the flooring allows doors to remain open all day.
Covered patios let the children play outside in inclement weather.
With the dirt from the excavation, Dowley designed rolling hills and valleys and large sand pools throughout the half-acre play yards adjoining the three primary classrooms. The resulting physical plant is so impressive that the one drawback mentioned uniformly by parents is that after your child attends Bing, no school will ever look as good. Given such space and freedom, children run and play, wandering in and out at will, choosing from puzzles laid out on a table, a book in a corner, a tire swing in the trees, a stack of blocks. In the book corner, you have the English department. The physics department is at the water table.