Although unmaintained and strewn with trash, the sloping, rocky Bronx site for a new YMCA was blessed with 100-year-old trees and a rugged beauty waiting to be rediscovered. Part of a property occupied by the Christopher School, a New York City-run institution for children with special needs, it sat across the street from Cardinal Spellman High School and near the Baychester and Edenwald public-housing projects that encompass a total of 51 buildings, with nearly 2,500 low-income apartments. “The first thing we did was survey the trees and figure out which ones we should save and which we might move,” says Lissa So, a partner at Marvel, the architecture firm that designed the Northeast Bronx YMCA completed last September.
The firm met with members of a local citizens group that had been fighting for a community center for years. The group wanted a new recreational facility with spaces for wellness and learning. Throughout the design process, the architects had to juggle the perspectives of various stakeholders—the YMCA; the surrounding underserved community; the city, which owned the land; and the Christopher School, which would lose some of its campus. Most Y’s in New York are in aging buildings or in larger projects built by developers, who include them to meet requirements for community facilities. A rare ground-up project, the Northeast Bronx Y could respond to the needs of different groups. “We wanted to make a statement,” says Joe Chan, senior vice president of real estate and property management for the YMCA of Greater New York. “It’s not often that three acres of land becomes available in New York.”
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