Program
Community Youth Center & Open
Category I: Community Youth Center
Community youth centers provide places for young people to meet and participate in impactful activities, ranging from organized recreation to educational and vocational mentorship to skills development to community service. Strategic and sustainable approaches to programming emphasize flexibility, hybridization, and long-term adaptability, where spaces may adjust to shifting needs on a daily basis and through the lifetime of the building as changes occur in the communities they serve.
Traditionally catering to the youth, ages early teens to young adults, contemporary youth centers often expand their missions to support a wider range of community audiences, especially in areas where public venues are limited. Providing welcome to a broader public reinforces the center’s importance as a community anchor and opens opportunities for intergenerational interaction and mentorship. It also requires thoughtful planning to maintain safety and age-appropriate programming. Such considerations may come into play when considering the added program.
Site
The site for the competition is the choice of the student and/or faculty sponsor. Selection of the site should consider its proximity to an understood user group and be accessible by multiple systems of transportation such as public bus routes, sidewalks, and/or greenways for walking and biking. Submissions will be required to explain the site selection, audience, public access, and other context strategies, graphically or otherwise.
Program
The total area of the youth center may vary, depending on your population size, site limitations, assessment of the community’s needs, and development of added program. The building area should range between 25,000 and 35,000 gross square feet. External spaces are limited by site and applicability.
The following programmatic spaces must be included in the building. For many of the spaces, a range of square footage is given to accommodate various community populations. Solutions should observe the given spaces and sizes within a range of plus or minus ten percent. Further deviation resulting from strategies of flexible programming is permissible but must be explained in the program summary. In addition to the required program, faculty and students are asked to assess their specific community’s needs and define an auxiliary program or set of spaces, not to exceed 30% of the total square footage.
Entry Area
Lobby/Reception/Seating Area | 300-600 sq. ft. |
Public Restrooms | |
2-4 lavatories per gender, or as code requires | 300-600 sq. ft. total |
1 single-user toilet room, unisex | 50 sq. ft. |
ENTRY AREA SUBTOTAL | 650-1,250 sq. ft. |
Interior Recreational Facilities
Gymnasium (may include performance stage) | 6,400-7,200 sq. ft. |
Fitness Area | 400-800 sq. ft. |
RECREATIONAL FACILITIES SUBTOTAL | 6,400-8,000 sq. ft. |
Educational Spaces
Classrooms/Vocational Training Room | 960-1,200 sq. ft. |
Multimedia Lab | 260-520 sq. ft. each |
Mentoring Rooms/Study Spaces | 2 @ 80-200 sq. ft. ea. |
EDUCATIONAL SPACES SUBTOTAL | 1,380-2,120Â sq. ft. |
Maker and Creative Spaces
Art Studio | 960-1,200 sq. ft. |
Maker Lab | 960-1,200 sq. ft. |
Technology Workshop | 960-1,200 sq. ft. |
MAKER AND CREATIVE SPACES SUBTOTAL | 2,880-3,600 sq. ft. |
General Services, Public Facing
Cafeteria Space | 600-1,000 sq. ft. |
Small Library | 200-400 sq. ft. |
Lounge or Game Room | 400-600 sq. ft. |
Conference/Meeting Room | 400-600 sq. ft. |
GENERAL PUBLIC SERVICES SUBTOTAL | 1,600-2,600 sq. ft. |
Staff and Support Spaces
Staff Office(s) | 165-475 sq. ft. total |
Counseling Rooms | 1-2 @ 120 sq. ft. ea. |
Staff Restroom | |
1 single-user toilet room, unisex | 50 sq. ft. |
First-Aid/Medical Room | 80 sq. ft. |
Kitchen/Catering Kitchen Area | 480-800 sq. ft. |
Storage (distributed throughout the center, as appropriate) | 480-600 sq. ft. |
Loading/Access for Delivery/Trash | 300-600 sq. ft. |
STAFF AND SUPPORT SPACES SUBTOTAL | 1,675-2,845 sq. ft. |
Total Program
Required Programmatic Spaces Subtotal | 14,585-20,415 sq. ft |
Added Programmatic Spaces (3/7 of required) | 6,250-8,750 sq. ft. |
Programmatic Spaces Subtotal | 20,835-29,165 sq. ft. |
Services at 20% (corridors, mechanical, and other service) | 4,165-5,835 sq. ft. |
TOTAL PROGRAM | 25,000-35,000 sq. ft. |
Outdoor Areas
Exterior spaces extend the programming potential of the youth center and often serve to connect the facility with its surrounding context. Depending on the site and community needs, these spaces should include, but are not limited to, the following.
Courtyard and/or Covered Patio/Porch | unspecified |
Sports Field/Play Area | unspecified |
Garden and/or Patio Garden | unspecified |
Construction Type
The project must be conceived in structural steel construction and must contain at least one space/element that requires long-span steel structure, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. The most compelling proposals will inevitably integrate the use of steel into the design of the project at multiple levels, from primary structure to building envelope and tectonic details.
Category II: Open
The ÌÇÐÄvlog/AISC 2027 Steel Design Student Competition also offers architecture students the opportunity to participate in an open competition with limited restrictions. With the approval of a sponsoring faculty member, students may select a site and building program.Â
- The Category II program should be of equal complexity as the Category I program.
- Students entering Category II must submit a written building program, including a brief description of the building type, gross square footage, and project location, as part of the online submission in the Program Edits (copy/paste text box).
Restrictions
To enter the open competition students may select any building occupancy other than a community or recreational center.
Students may not enter both categories of the competition.
Construction Type
The design project must be conceived in structural steel construction and must contain at least one space/element that requires long-span steel structure, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. The most compelling proposals will inevitably integrate the use of steel into the design of the project at multiple levels, from primary structure to building envelope and tectonic details.
Competition Organizers & Sponsors
Questions
Edwin Hernández-Ventura
Awards and Competitions Manager
ehernandez@acsa-arch.org
202.785.2324
Eric W. Ellis
Senior Director of Operations and Programs
eellis@acsa-arch.org
202-785-2324