New Raleigh YMCA glows with warmth

RALEIGH -- When the sky darkens around the new YMCA building on Hillsborough Street each night, a patchwork of windows flash scenes reminiscent of the happiest of homes.

On the first floor, mothers dance to Latin hip-hop music. A floor above, boys and girls pore over homework. Across the hall, dads square off against sons in a game of basketball.

"It is a living billboard," said Brad Davis, director of the Alexander Family YMCA, the city's oldest Y branch.

In the past two years, the downtown YMCA fell and rose again, bringing a modern eye-catcher to a sleepy corridor near the city's revitalizing core. It's a striking building, boasting windows set to capture natural light no matter the sun's position. The building's front entrance, facing Park Avenue off Hillsborough, is nearly all glass, with light seeping onto sofas and tables in a lobby equipped with wireless Internet.

Gray aluminum zags in brown brick, creating a muted facade by day. At night, though, it glows, luring passersby on Hillsborough Street to stop and stare.

"They wanted a flagship building and a street presence," said Chris Howard, vice-president of Quick and Associates and the lead architect for the project. "We wanted to give them something they could be proud of as part of downtown's revitalization."

The new building works, said Marvin Malecha, dean of N.C. State's College of Design. Its success is, in large part, because of its originality.

"It's fresh," Malecha said. "It's not a mediocre redo of something from 100 years ago."

At a cost of $17 million, the new YMCA offers more than 100,000 square feet on three floors, including a pool, racquetball courts and an indoor track around an open gymnasium. It's as slick as any commercial fitness club, offering steam rooms and saunas and even baby sitters to watch children while their parents hit the treadmill. The building was finished this month, on time and under budget, a rarity for projects of its scope.

The new YMCA replaces a 1960s-era, five-story brick club pushed back from Hillsborough Street. Modern in its time, outdated by today's standards, the old YMCA had a hold on longtime members' hearts.

"I remember walking into the Y for the first time in 1987. It was dark and dingy and kind of scary. And we were content," said Mike Minikus, an accountant in Raleigh and a longtime member.

Howard's team originally tried to configure a plan that would salvage the old building, sketching additions to accommodate new services. But tearing down and building new was less costly, Howard said.

It's hard to get those who love the YMCA to talk about bricks and mortar. Theirs is a people business. Its leaders would rather talk about day camps and holiday trees and Willie Wright, the barber who has cut hair in the men's locker room for 32 years. Every feature of the new building beckons some story about particular members' needs. Even the decorations -- Bible verses and framed sections of the old gymnasium floor -- are sentimental.

Howard, a member of the YMCA, understood how beloved the old Y was. His children had grown up through the YMCA's camps.

"This project was so close to my heart," Howard said. "It's like a second home for my family."

Much of the interior design is focused on a member's passage through the building. If the YMCA leaders have their druthers, that journey is one of connection and serendipity. They want to know your name, your children's names, where you work and your workout plan. In stairwells and nooks, clusters of old and young gather to catch up and swap workout tips.

A workers' haven

The Alexander Family YMCA is a local version of a movement rooted in England when urbanization erupted across the globe in the mid-1800s. Raleigh got its first permanent YMCA in 1911, built at the corner of Wilmington and Edenton streets to host young men migrating to the city for work. They rented rooms from the YMCA; at nightfall, the group's leaders lured them into basketball games and Bible studies -- wholesome endeavors to counter the mischief available beyond its doors.

By the 1950s, Raleigh's YMCA outgrew its space and bought land down the street. That building opened in 1960 and still offered three floors of rooms for rent. In "The Andy Griffith Show," Barney Fife often mentioned his corner room at the YMCA.

In planning their new building, YMCA leaders decided they would abandon their mission of providing temporary housing. Davis said other groups in Raleigh now provide a place to stay more efficiently than they could.

The YMCA is now mostly focused on families, from members just learning to crawl to those hobbling up the stairs with a cane.

So far, the plan is working. Membership has exploded with growth that began during construction. The rolls now top 11,000 individuals, more than double what they were two years ago. Davis said a buzz about the new facility drew new members even before the work was finished.

"We cut our building in half, introduced loud construction crews and our electricity worked intermittently," Davis said. "Still, people came in droves."