programming & precedent studies

Precedent research was used to understand the designs of various LGBTQIA+ community centers as well as to seek more information about individual programming elements. Below are some of the LGBTQIA+ specific community centers that were used to understand spatial requiements.

This community center provides the community with youth and senior housing integrated into a multi building campus. The organizational layout provides seperation and secure access into the more private spaces while the community cafe and plaza are more public. The community center provides 100 beds for homeless youth, 25 supportive housing untis for youth, and 99 affordable housing units for seniors. A commercial kitchen, various senior resources, and a youth academy all work together to support the center.

Unlike the following pie charts, this graph includes both on site or garage parking as well as the various housing typologies. Parking and housing take up about a third of the programming respectively leaving only one third of the community center to fill all other programmatic funcitons. The center would likely need a minimum of 100,000 square feet of space for this not including the parking itself. Locating the center in close proximity to public transportation or greenways and other resources may reduce the need for parking on a larger scale.

Located in Melbourne, AU, this community center provides ample gathering spaces including a coworking space, cafe, functional theater, recording studios, community garden, archive, and retail space. The space also provides health services as well as many adaptable spaces that allow for fluidity and change in programming and for possible expansion.

When comparing the percentages of the programming without parking included, housing begins to fill about half of the space. Housing here is including senior housing and resources, youth housing and resources, emergency shelter, and affordable housing. With the great need for housing in Nashville and the desire from the community to see affordable and senior housing in the center, including housing in the comunity center could greatly benefit the LGBTQIA+ community.

Located in Chicago, the space provides a majority of event spaces through a large recreation hall, theater, and reception hall. Smaller multipurpose meeting spaces and classrooms fill the center alongside mental and physical health spaces. Youth and senior programming is amplified here and the town hall apartments on the same block offer 79 apartment units to 55+ LGBTQ residents. The apartment includes a computer lab, library, phsycial therapy space, fitness, laundry, community kitchen along with retail spaces.

This pie chart demonstrates the relation of the programming square footage for all community center spaces except for housing and parking. Event space as well as the other gathering spaces take up the largest amount, followed by health spaces, and then retail. Using this diagram, there is a more clear understanding of the relationships of the programming to each other. This can be stand alone or can show a more zoomed in look at what is happening in the leftover third or half in the first and second charts.