This artist’s rendering provided by GouldEvans illustrates a .9 million early-childhood education center the Ballard Center has filed plans for to build.

The Lawrence-based Ballard Center has filed plans for a $3.9 million expansion that leaders hope will result in one of the more unique, environmentally friendly buildings in the country.

The center is seeking approval to build a new early-childhood education center for 88 toddlers and infants at 345 Fla. But Ballard officials also have set a goal of making the building the nation’s first LEED Platinum certified early childhood education center.

“We want the building itself to be a teaching tool,” said Dianne Ensminger, Ballard president and CEO. “Through the design, the children are going to be able to learn how to be environmentally friendly. We call it peel and reveal.”

The building will be designed to allow children see its inner workings — everything from the 29 wells that power a geothermal heating system to see-through pipes that will collect rainwater off the roof.

“The building can be an amazing resource,” said Sean Zaudke, an architect for Lawrence-based GouldEvans, which is designing the project.

The project would be built on the site of a former drug and alcohol treatment facility run by DCCCA. Ballard had planned to renovate the building, but those plans changed in January 2009 when a fire sprinkler system malfunctioned and flooded the building just days before work would have begun.

The flooding was so severe that the saturated ground beneath the building caused the structure to sink about six inches.

“I remember standing there in knee-deep water, freezing and watching our dreams go down the drain,” said Ensminger. “But now I wonder if it was supposed to happen this way.”

The center is being dubbed The Petey Cerf Early Education Center for Children and Families, named after the late philanthropist who helped found the Ballard Center.

The center will be open to all children up to age 5, but Ensminger said an emphasis will be placed on serving infants.

“In all of Douglas County there are only 72 slots in licensed (day care) facilities for infants, and there are 1,500 born at the hospital each year,” Ensminger said. “There’s a real need.”

The project already has been awarded $250,000 in state tax credits that will be available for area residents through the end of the year. Ensminger said she anticipates the bulk of the funding coming from grants.

“We don’t want to do a large capital campaign locally,” Ensminger said.

The center will be in addition to the three early childhood sites that Ballard currently operates. Ensminger hopes to have the new center open by August 2012.