The Anthony Bowen YMCA

The Anthony Bowen YMCA

Nonprofit / YMCA of Metropolitan Washington Design Firm / De Space Designs

An on-going series of case studies that feature projects by ASID members participating in The 1% who are making pro bono service an integral part of design practice.

PRO BONO CASE STUDY / Nº9

DIALOGUE NONPROFIT / DESIGN FIRM

© PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE MAY 2017

An on-going series of case studies to make pro bono service an integral part of design practice

Project Anthony Bowen YMCA Location Washington DC Date 2013 Nonprofit YMCA of Metropolitan Washington Nonprofit liaisons Angie Resse-Hawkins, CEO Pamela Curran, COO Interior Architecture firm De Space Designs Design team Diane Taitt, managing principal Tasneem Zraikat, project coordinator Simisola marinho, project manager Graphic design Swatchroom Administrative YMCA Area 44,000 square feet Project collaborators DCS architecture, base building architects Photo Credits Ken Wyner Photography More info ymcadc.org despacedesigns.com

PRO BONO CASE STUDY / Nº9

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Diane S Taitt, founder of De Space Designs has an ongoing relationship with the YMCA. It began with a small test fit over 12 years ago at another firm.

I was immediately impressed with the vision and accomplishments of Angie and her team. I was inspired to prepare a presentation highlighting how we could partner with the YMCA to create soulful experiences in the YMCA facilities in the DC metro area. We worked on several YMCA projects throughout the years. Then in 2006 Pamela Curran the COO mentioned the upcoming project, Angie’s dream to rebuild the Anthony Bowen YMCA.

We connected with Diane S. Taitt and De Space Designs when we were ready to build the Anthony Bowen YMCA. We wanted someone who could bring a unique lens to the project because the Y has a steep learning curve.

Diane S. Taitt, ASID, Managing Principal

I was committed to lend my support to ensure the project was brought to fruition. We test fitted potential sites, prepared preliminary conceptual drawings, and generally I was available as needed. We pulled out all the stops, demonstrating opportunities to brand the facility and include environmental graphics to tell the story of Anthony Bowen while supporting the mission and core values. This was the beginning of the eight (8) year

Angie Resse-Hawkins, President and CEO Pamela Curran, Chief Operating Officer

The YMCA is model is an economic driver made up of direct services that provide people the ability to workout and achieve their health and fitness goals; and social service programs for people who need it most. There’s a preconceived notion about the Y, that YMCA facilities are in bad shape, tucked away in communities, and only provide childcare and arts and crafts. We have to balance these notions with our economic driver, mission, and community care. That is not an easy feat. You want your facility to be open to all, comfortable, and to connect people and bring people together. They also need to be attractive to a certain audience with more economic power so that you can continue to do your social services and build social cohesion in your community.

This project was to convert a former grocery store footprint into a spacious, mixed-use platform

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An on-going series of case studies to make pro bono service an integral part of design practice

Design Anthony Bowen Journey – from concept to brick and mortar.

We later prepared marketing renderings and participated in presentations to the city, and neighborhood groups to demonstrate the YMCA’s commitment to the community. It was important for the YMCA to engage the city and local community on a grassroots level early on, providing opportunities for the community to voice their wishes and concerns.

Post the economic recession of 2009 DC gentrification was accelerating at an ever increasing speed. With that came cultural and economic changes in the neighborhood. The color of Shaw was changing, this required sensitivities to the needs of both the long time DC residents and the influx of new DC residents.

Angie Reese Hawkins, president and CEO of the DC metro YMCA’s embraced her mentor’s dream to rebuild the Anthony Bowen Facility in celebration of his life and legacy. Angie provided the visions and directives on this journey. Pamela Curran, COO and her right had woman, ensured that the execution of the facility embodied the vision.

The state of the art 44,000 sq ft facility, was inspired by the rich historical context of the U St neighborhood, and the legacy of Anthony Bowen, its founder. We designed a welcoming open plan community facility to provide opportunities for human collisions, a welcoming community space, inspiring and deliberately comfortable.

De Space Designs, created a dynamic space that embraced connectivity and transparency organized around a large open staircase.

Connectivity through time honors the history of the facility by embracing storytelling and integrating graphics, celebrating the past.

The story of the Y and Anthony Bowen begins unfolding in the lobby with the dynamic timeline wall exhibition, a timeline of the life of Anthony Bowen. Warm bamboo wood ceilings punctured with glowing backlit translucent panels, polished concrete floors and large exhibition graphics create an urban contemporary “vibe”.

PRO BONO CASE STUDY Nº9

“It was important for the YMCA to engage the city and local community on a grassroots level early on”

Other features include a demonstration kitchen, zen-inspired locker rooms, and a 27+ ft high climbing wall that rises from the lower level of the facility through the main level. The facility features a large aquatics center with a 6 lane zero entry pool.

— Diane Taitt, AIA

In the childcare wing the traditional hallways, are dissolved into playful organic forms, providing lots of area for interactive display and display area.

“De Space Designs, created a dynamic space that embraced connectivity and transparency” — Diane Taitt, AIA

One of my personal favorite areas is the roof top meeting Space and roof top terrace. The large gathering space on the 2nd floor was designed for training, classes, community gatherings and celebrations. The terrace is social gathering space that serves as the green heart and soul of the facility. The 3185 sq ft “plaza”, is an urban oasis overlooking W Street.

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An on-going series of case studies to make pro bono service an integral part of design practice

Nonprofit facility. We wanted a ‘wow’ factor throughout the facility. It had to be welcoming and reflective of the people and the diversity of the community.

Our designer needed to understand the YMCA mission. We chose Diane to represent us with the developers, and she delivered with enthusiasm from the first day to the last. Diane did a fantastic job of fulfilling our dreams.

Given the history and the legacy of Anthony Bowen, the project team had a huge responsibility and challenge. They needed a great deal of political sensitivity to preserve Bowen’s legacy and to understand the historic Shaw neighborhood.

There was fear that the project would become too heavy handed or museum-like. Others wanted to make sure the project was true to the city and the community itself.

With these considerations, we had to do a lot of strategic financing. We started this project one year before the recession, and it blew us out of the water. Because of fears stemming from the economic recession of 2008, the project initially lost every lending bank’s support. One way or another, we were committed to make sure this YMCA would happen and kept everyone motivated through three of the worst years we’ve ever seen.

PRO BONO CASE STUDY / Nº9

Some people thought we were crazy and unrealistic.

In addition to handling the great sensitivity around community, culture and history, Diane also worked with serious financial challenges.

Diane didn’t have an easy job, and as a team, we came up against a male dominant culture of developers who thought of the Y as simply a gym and swimming pool. We serve a lot of underserved people, who deserve a great facility. This notion was a hard sell.

Diane stayed with us through it all: she kept her eye on the prize, she understood the architectural detail of the design, she was wedded to our dream.

We worked together as caretakers of the Bowen legacy.

We put the designers through a sort of immersion program to make sure they had a lot of facts and historical materials about Anthony Bowen. The the recession slowed us down. Diane did an exercise that was just incredible where she asked us to put together a list of adjectives to describe Anthony Bowen, like calming, welcoming, serene, peaceful, and energized.

The organization was very involved throughout the entire design process, spending about 70% of our time over three years working on design with Diane. We took her to see the best YMCA’s and other health and wellness providers. It was our labor of love, and we had so much fun. Once the building started to come to life, we concentrated on ‘wow’ factors for each and every area. We now have a beautiful mural of the Underground Railroad.

Thanks to Diane, we collaborated with some upand-coming artists, which resulted in so much publicity.

We understood the Bowen facility would serve two very different groups, the Southwest and the Southeast. We had gentrification coming at us fast and hard, and the Y needed to be a space for the merging of socioeconomic cultures. We went to the DC Preservation League as well as influential politicians and area leaders hoping to preserve the Anthony Bowen legacy. They loved that we wanted to create a hub and anchor, in order to foster stability in the neighborhood. A lot of people thought this project wasn’t going to happen and had the “call me when you are further along” attitude. But we kept pushing.

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An on-going series of case studies to make pro bono service an integral part of design practice

“We took an entire neighborhood and transformed it by just being there ourselves.”

— Angie Reath Hawkins

Design Despite the budget challenges, we managed to create a thoughtful and detail oriented space. “let me tell you, we called on the power of paint and drywall and sheer will often!” We managed to switch out materials, modify details, and perhaps reduce the scale of a feature item. It was a constant push and pull to make sure we maximized the impact of dollar spent.

De Space Designs, a woman owned studio, was launched with this rewarding project. It was also our first project with a pro bono component, a significant milestone in my rich journey with the YMCA.

Nonprofit When the Sweetgreen Cafe was up and coming in Washington, I made my mind up to have them at Anthony Bowen. Their business cycle is the opposite of ours: they are busy in the summer, we are busy in the winter. Their mission and community services lined up very well with ours. So they came over and met with us, and moved into the Bowen space!

It was a complex decision because we would share space with our brands. Diane had to turn around and work with Sweetgreen and their designers.

We had this big, wonderful, open, space where we could do poetry slams, and have real discussion, evening performances, and the doors connect up to Sweetgreens. Their clients are our members. It was one of those partnerships that made a lot of sense for the Y. We made a commitment to hire employees from the community, and we have lived up to that. It is not necessarily easy with a community that is in the middle of gentrifying, but we have maintained around 60-75 percent of our hires straight from the community.

attractiveness of living here stronger. The last mayor articulated that he thought Bowen was one of the best economic development projects in DC. We took an entire neighborhood and transformed it by just being there ourselves.

Diane created spaces for us to tell stories. She made the Quote Wall. She incorporated all the photos we gave her of Zora Neale Hurston, Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, and people who frequented the Anthony Bowen YMCA throughout its history. She gave us the opportunity to tell different stories about the evolution of the Anthony Bowen YMCA. We saw an opportunity and had to chase it with everything we had, market it, sell it, and convince everyone around us. The national YMCA is very proud of this project. It lifts their ability as a national organization and shows that YMCA has another dimension. It reminds us and gives us the opportunity to serve more people in a more meaningful way.

There’s home, there’s work, and there’s the Y. At the Y, you get to hang out with your friends, you get a salad from Sweetgreen, you have places to work on your laptop, we have a boardroom upstairs for meetings, we do yoga, we have a garden on the rooftop, and it’s amazing. The Y is an amenity you get if you live in this community, and it has made retention stronger and better. It also makes the

PRO BONO CASE STUDY Nº9

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THE 1% PROGRAM The 1% program is a first-of-its-kind effort to encourage pro bono service within the architecture and design professions. It connects nonprofits with architecture and design firms willing to give of their time. Learn More PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE Public Architecture is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in San Francisco. It engages architecture firms, nonprofits, and manufacturers to commit to design for the public good through its nationally recognized 1% program. Learn More THE SOCIETY OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS ASID is committed to advancing the profession and communicating the impact of interior design to enhance the human experience.

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