Your feel-good project of the day: RoTo Architects, the same firm behind the new Madame Tussauds museum, has designed a new 12,000 square foot building for the Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood. Geared towards teens, specifically at-risk teens, the building will rise on Willoughby, between Vine and Cahuenga, right next to the current club building. (The site currently houses a metal shed.) "We have permits in hand, we are waiting for the money to free up," says Michael Rotondi, founder of RoTo Architects. "All the money is pledged...and we're looking at a 2010 ground-breaking." Meanwhile, here's the story Rotondi says about the club: When he was growing up in Silver Lake, he attended the original Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood when it was located on Delongpre Avenue. According to Rotondi, when Home Depot moved to Hollywood Blvd in the late 1980s, the chain knocked down the Boys & Girls Club. About five years later, a new center opened on Cahuegena and Willoughby. Rotondi and Curbed agree that perhaps Home Depot, which does quite a bit of charitable work, may want to donate some money so the new building can go up.
Project architect's description:
Boys and Girls Club Hollywood
The club has served the children of Hollywood for 75 years. The facility will make it possible to enlarge its member base with this new teen center. The building will also give the teens their own sense of identity. The program being larger then the site, will be filled with a new gymnasium, learning center, dance/exercise studio, cafe and lounge, reception-office, and a roof deck facing the mountains and the Hollywood sign to the north. The entire building will be filled with balanced natural light all day, this will eliminate glare and shadows, and reduce energy costs.
The main body of the building is lifted to provide playground and parking. The 2 biggest box volumes create one volume with split-levels used for the main activities, including gymnasium and dance. The Executive Director wants a place the teens will make a ‘first choice,’ to go to.
The interior openness allows a limited number of staff to see almost everywhere within set positions. Materials will be concrete, masonry, steel structure, metal skin, glass, and wood floors.
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