Dear Center Community Member,
I am writing with exciting news about our Center. Later this year we will break ground on an ambitious renovation that will enhance your Center experience for decades to come.
The design of the project represents the culmination of years of feedback provided by Center users and visitors, including focus groups, surveys and individual conversations. And it builds on the vision of our founders who believed that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people deserve a Center that is welcoming, functional and beautiful.
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• The lobby will be expanded and refurbished to make it more user-friendly. It will include a café, a revamped David Bohnett CyberCenter and new front doors.
• The Lerner Auditorium on the third floor and the Kaplan Assembly Hall on the ground floor will become beautiful event spaces outfitted with modernized audio/visual equipment, lighting and other capabilities.
• Our beautiful garden will be repaved and outfitted with new seating and lighting.
• Public corridors and meeting rooms will get new floors and lighting.
• Additional public meeting rooms will be added to the inventory of available space.
• The elevator cab and controls will be upgraded. |
To undertake such a project requires substantial financial support. The Center is fortunate that New York State and City elected officials, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Assemblymember Deborah Glick, among others, share our vision and have committed significant capital funds to the project. Their generosity, coupled with current and future commitments from individual donors, will bring our plans to fruition next year.
As you can imagine, a project of this magnitude will impact operations in big and small ways, and will continue through early 2014. Auditorium spaces will be unavailable for periods of time. Other meeting rooms and offices will be inaccessible at various times, and the garden area will be closed. The main entrance will shift in response to lobby construction.
You may have questions about how these changes will affect you. We won't have all of the answers immediately, but we will keep you apprised of planning and progress throughout, and we will work closely with everyone affected to lessen inconveniences as much as possible.
Overall, the disruptions will be challenging but temporary and the end result will be worth it. Our Community Services adult, youth and family programming will continue during construction phases.
The Center celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2013. How fitting it will be to celebrate that milestone with an upgraded facility ready to welcome, support, entertain, and enrich our lives as LGBT New Yorkers in the years ahead.
I like to think that the Center is embarking on a grand adventure, standing on the shoulders of its founders and enabled by previous renovations. Thank you for your support and encouragement, and I look forward to sending you progress reports along the way.
Yours in Service,
Glennda Testone
Executive Director
P.S. For information, photos and to support the project, please visit the Center's dedicated webpage, www.gaycenter.org/buildingforyou! Also be sure to check out The New York Times article, Gay Center to Make Its Village Home More Open and Less Noisy, for even more photos and details!
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