The Boys & Girls Clubs of America annually serve 4.3 million young people annually, through membership and community outreach, in 4,300 Clubs across the country and BGCA-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide.
On April 26, the organization’s Austin, Texas, area club (BGCAA) held a grand opening for its 32,000-sf headquarters—known as its Home Club—on 10 acres in East Austin. The new facility will allow the organization to serve an additional 1,000 youth, and address challenges for economically disadvantaged local children who lack a place to go after school and during other out-of-school times.
More than 105,000 youth in the Austin market still lack free or affordable programming after school each day, according to the BGCAA, which prior to this opening was serving about 7,500 registered club members ages 6 through 18 years old at 36 locations in two counties.
The new two-story facility houses the BGCAA’s administrative offices, representing the first time in this market that those offices have been combined with the space for kids.
Children can get between floors by stairs or by sliding down a spiral ramp. Image: Tre Dunham
The site on which the club is located is called the Sheth Family Campus, so named in recognition of a multimillion donation made to BGCAA by Adria and Brian Sheth, founders of The Sheth Sangreal Foundation. The club’s indoor athletic facility is named in honor of St David’s Foundation, which donated $1 million.
An anonymous donor provided an additional $1 million, with numerous other significant donations from leading community and business leaders. Fourteen donors kicked in between $100,000 and $999,999 each.
The $14 million club, for which SpawGlass Contractors was the GC, includes a STEM learning center, library, art studios, teen center, and indoor-outdoor sports facilities. STG Design, an Austin-based architecture and design firm, provided the building’s interior design. STG donated a total of $250,000 worth of in-kind services throughout the duration of the project, which broke ground on April 17, 2018.
Themes of openness and honesty informed the design, whose exposed beams, open duct work and lighting grid serve as a teaching tool for showing children have things go together. The roofline is modeled after a traditional home so that building blends in with the surrounding community.
(The land the club now sits on was once zoned for single-family and light residential use, according to the Austin-American Stateman.)
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Community college’s hillside learning center
The Earl E. and Dorothy J. Dellinger Learning Resource Center at Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, Va., is the centerpiece of this mountainside school. Designed by Arlington, Va.-based The Lukmire Partnership, the 50,000-sf, two-story building connects the upper and lower campuses, which are separated by a 70-foot vertical grade change.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils ‘floating cube’ design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park in Dallas. The $185 million, 180,000-sf structure is 170 feet tall—equivalent to approximately 14 stories—and is conceived as a large...
| Aug 11, 2010
BIG beats out Foster and Hadid in design competition for Kazakhstan's National Library
Invited as one of five pre-selected architect-led teams that included Lord Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid, Copenhagen-based BIG was awarded first prize in an international design competition for the new National Library in Astana, Kazakhstan. The 33,000-square-meter facility will be organized as a “circular loop of knowledge” that allows for clear, intuitive orientation of the vast co...
| Aug 11, 2010
Broadway-style theater headed to Kentucky
One of Kentucky's largest performing arts venues should open in 2011—that's when construction is expected to wrap up on Eastern Kentucky University's Business & Technology Center for Performing Arts. The 93,000-sf Broadway-caliber theater will seat 2,000 audience members and have a 60×24-foot stage proscenium and a fly loft.
| Aug 11, 2010
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts opens
The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, a new multi-venue center for music, opera, theater, and dance, will open this month, completing the 25-year vision of the Dallas Arts District. Foster + Partners, Rem Koolhaas, Joshua Prince-Ramus, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill are among the architecture firms involved in the development, which includes four venues unified by a 10-acre park.
| Aug 11, 2010
TCF Bank Stadium first new football stadium to get LEED certification
The University of Minnesota has received LEED Silver certification for its 50,805-seat TCF Bank Stadium, making it the first new football stadium in the country to achieve LEED status. Designed by Populous, Kansas City, Mo., the facility features a stormwater management system that captures and stores rainwater in an underground filtering system, where it is harvested, filtered, and drained int...
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction begins on Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame
Heavy construction and foundation work has started on the new Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame and Regional History Museum in Natchitoches, La. Designed by Trahan Architects, Baton Rouge, the $12 million, 28,000-sf museum will be clad in sinker cypress planks as a nod to the region’s rich timber legacy and to help control light, views, and ventilation throughout the facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Modest recession for education construction
Construction spending for education expanded modestly but steadily through March, while at the same time growth for other institutional construction had stalled earlier in 2009. Education spending is now at or near the peak for this building cycle. The value of education starts is off 9% year-to-date compared to 2008.
| Aug 11, 2010
Manhattan's Pier 57 to be transformed into $210 million cultural center
LOT-EK, Beyer Blinder Belle, and West 8 have been selected as the design team for Hudson River Park's $210 million Pier 57 redevelopment, headed by local developer Young Woo & Associates. The 375,000-sf vacant passenger ship terminal will be transformed into a cultural center, small business incubator, and public park, including a rooftop venue for the Tribeca Film Festival.
| Aug 11, 2010
Opening night close for Kent State performing arts center
The curtain opens on the Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center at Kent State University in early 2010, giving the New Philadelphia, Ohio, school a 1,100-seat multipurpose theater. The team of Legat & Kingscott of Columbus, Ohio, and Schorr Architects of Dublin, Ohio, designed the 50,000-sf facility with a curving metal and glass façade to create a sense of movement and activity.
