The majority of YMCA members are 65 years old or older. In Coney Island, this population is also largely immigrants. With their core communities overseas, this population at a higher risk for loneliness, isolation, and depression. This condition is at the forefront of my design, which seeks to use visual and physical connectivity to create a sense of community in the Y and facilitate inter- generational interactions.
At the YMCA, the space with the highest potential for inter-generational crossover is the pool. For this reason, the two pools form the foundation of a “public corridor,” a series of stacked civic-sized spaces extending from the level of the street and up through the building. This design creates a sense of community not just through the size of the congregation spaces, but also through the unexpected pairings of programs, separated only by glazing, offset by a dense packing of private programs.
