- Previous coverage: WITH GALLERY: Ann Arbor's Bryant Community Center looks to expand after two decades
The Bryant Community Center at 3 W. Eden Ct. in Ann Arbor. The city purchased the house next door for $70,000 and is looking to build a connecting building between the two in a long-overdue expansion for the facility.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
After more than two decades of operations, the expansion is long overdue for the community center, said officials from the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
The city owns the community center property at 3 W. Eden Court, and in November 2011 purchased a small three-bedroom home next door and about 30 feet away at 5 W. Eden Court for $70,000. A total of $82,500 was allocated for the purchase by City Council.
After public meetings the city conducted with neighborhood residents in early 2012 to gauge interest in how they would like to see the center expand, an architect was hired to draft several space plan options.
Thursday night architect John Mouat of Mitchell and Mouat Architects presented those options - all of which included building a connecting building between the two houses to make one large facility.
As the Bryant Community Center offers a variety of programs and services for children to adults, the space is constantly being turned over from one program to another.
The interior of both buildings would be reconfigured to allow certain programs in high demand operating out of cramped rooms in the community center to be more user-friendly and accessible.
One design garnered a general consensus of support among the 17 residents that attended the informal meeting with park planner Amy Kuras and Jeff Straw, deputy manager of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Julie Grand, chairwoman of the Ann Arbor Park Advisory Commission, also attended the meeting.
Residents liked the design that moved the main entrance of Bryant Community Center to the new connecting piece of the building to make it a more centralized location.
“Connecting the two buildings was what came out of previous community meetings,” Straw said.
Derrick Miller, director of Byrant Community Center, voiced his support for adding a large, covered porch outside of the new main entrance at the proposed connecting building to provide some shelter for clients who wait outside the center before it’s open.
“We operate this like a home,” Miller said, explaining that a porch could become a neighborhood focal point for residents to gather and talk.
Two central hubs of activity in the center - the kitchen and the emergency food pantry - would be expanded.
The emergency food pantry would be moved from its cramped location in a single room to a larger room adjacent to the multi-purpose room where a computer lab is now. The location would also allow for staff to stock the pantry faster, as it’s closer to the side entrance where about 15,000 pounds of food from Food Gatherers is delivered each month.
Administrative offices - located now in a small bedroom - would be moved in to the new connecting building, where a more formal reception area would be built.
In the house at 5 W. Eden Ct., a teen lounge would be constructed in most of the space.
The two back yards - separated now by a fence - will ultimately become one large yard fully enclosed by a fence so that it can only be accessed through the community center building for safety purposes.
Bryant Park resident Leaner Webster was among those who attended the meeting Thursday night. Like many of the other residents, Webster was happy to see that the designs put forward by the architect gave programs dedicated spaces to operate out of.
“I like the distribution of the space,” Webster said, noting she didn’t think that one bathroom in the teen center would be enough.
The design will undergo further revision by the architect under the direction of the parks planning staff, and then move to the cost-estimate phase, Straw said. It will then be phased in to the department’s master plan in a timeline that’s feasible in light of other capital improvement projects, Straw said.
Funding for the expansion of the Bryant Community Center has not been explored to date as the process is still early in the design phases, Straw said.
The community center is owned by the City of Ann Arbor and has been operated by Community Action Network for the past five years. CAN spent about $196,000 on operations at Bryant Community Center in the 2012 fiscal year. All services at the center are free to clients.
One of the conceptual floor plans for the Bryant Community Center. The existing building is on the right in the light green; the proposed connecting building is in the brown and the three-bedroom house at 5 W. Eden Ct. is in the darker green.
Amy Biolchini | AnnArbor.com
Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.