Construction at the site of the Eden Institute’s new home is expected to begin later this month in Forrestal Village. Having outgrown its space in West Windsor, Eden will be moving to Plainsboro after a two-story expansion and construction of a new building is complete.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, September 23, at 10 a.m. Construction is expected to take 18 months.
Eden announced last month that it had closed on $12 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the state Economic Development Authority to fund the project.
The Plainsboro Planning Board gave subdivision and preliminary and final site plan approval to the Eden Institute in January, 2009. The move to the 2.7-acre Plainsboro site comes as a result of the growth Eden has experienced since it was established in 1975. The Institute provides a lifespan of services designed to enable children and adults with autism to lead fulfilling and productive lives.
Since 1983, when the Institute moved to its current West Windsor location off Route 1, the organization has grown not only in size, but also in the range of services it offers, and the building is really no longer sufficient. The plan incorporates the Harmony building with a 25,000 square-foot expansion. Eden does not plan to add a significant number of students once it moves.
The proposal calls for a maximum of 80 students and 95 staff members. The new facility will house the school, its offices, Wawa House Services, and the infant and toddler programs. It will provide space for the assessment and diagnosis of young children and services including schooling, job training, and community employment and volunteering for its students. Students are trained to work in their communities, and some even work in the Plainsboro Library.
Among the new amenities are facilities for a culinary arts program, convenience store, a two-story gymnasium, and recreation facilities. The second floor of the Forrestal Village building will be used exclusively for administrative offices, while the ground floor will be used for students, including classroom facilities, a cafeteria, and the commercial kitchen for the culinary arts program. An office training room and convenience store will also be located on that level.
The existing Harmony building on site stands at 12,000 feet. The addition will consist of the gymnasium, separated from the existing Harmony facility by an interior lobby porch area. And the new two-story classroom wing, which will be a separate building, will be built along the College Road West portion of the site.
The new addition will feature cement board siding to blend in with the design of the existing building. The buildings form an enclosed courtyard area, which will feature playground equipment for the elementary school children. The Institute will use the open area south of the existing building for walking trails, basketball courts, and outdoor activities.
There are 41 parking spaces total on the site, which is located on a 2.7-acre plot straddled by Merwick Road and Village Boulevard, behind the police barracks and bordered by College Road West. There are 41 parking spaces located on site, and most of the staff arrive at 8 a.m. and will first fill up the spaces adjacent to the proposed bus drop-off area. Up to 78 staff members will be accommodated here.
Students at Eden are transported by their school districts every day in small vans and mini-buses. The first group arrives on site around 9 a.m. The buses pull up in front of the building, at which time staff members are already awaiting their arrival. Buses leave the site at 2:30 p.m., but the bulk leave at 5 p.m., since the school offers an after-school program, mostly for its students who fall between the ages of 8 to 21. Vans to the site come onto the site in a staggered manner, and there are usually no more than eight or nine vans at a time on site. The site will also feature a three-foot high split rail fence, but the fence will not be used as a safety mechanism, but rather as a visual barrier.
