Everett Family YMCA

Everett, WA
Construction Cost: $24.23 million
Area / Square Feet: 65,650
Occupancy Date: November 2019

This family friendly YMCA replaced a building that had served the Everett, Wash., community for more than 100 years. The new Everett Family YMCA blends the town’s story with the YMCA’s mission of strengthening community through healthy living, youth development and social responsibility.

Designers of the new building focused on elevating Everett’s youths by providing spaces attuned to their unique program needs, such as space for Big Brothers Big Sisters, a physical therapy clinic, a dedicated teen area and shared use of aquatics facilities for the local school district swim teams.

The multifunction facility welcomes members with a dramatic entrance that stands as an allegory to the uplifting force of an aircraft wing against the wind — a nod to Everett’s history in aviation and manufacturing. Design and construction brought ecologically friendly and energy-efficient solutions to the building and site, with the goal of cost savings for the client and conscious environmental stewardship. The entire site infiltrates through raingardens and an underground stormwater system. Universal design solved a longstanding accessibility problem at this YMCA location. A sense of safety and connectivity is created through spatial relationships and views between interior activity areas and to the outdoors.