For more than 20 years, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad has been serving the expanding eastern segment of Carlsbad, Calif., and outgrew its aging temporary facility long ago. With the support of private and public donations, including the land, the organization seized an opportunity to triple the number of youths served by developing a new clubhouse.
At the core of the design is a spacious, two-story, natural-light-filled central games room. The space is defined by a series of colored boxed-out vertical fins lining both sides of the room, interspersed with clerestory windows, floating ceiling elements and pendant lights.
Glass walls visually connect the gymnasium, technology center, art room, music room, drama and dance spaces, learning center and exterior courtyard with the games room.
Because of BGC’s location between a town center and an existing neighborhood of single-family homes, providing both a transitional and connecting element was a key challenge. Shifting the large gymnasium element away from the boundary and wrapping it with smaller-mass activity spaces reduced the scale of the architecture.
Even with an extremely constrained site, the facility was able to maximize and expand its use by interconnecting the gymnasium and courtyard with the adjoining town green.