Designed to serve as a true community asset, the new facility will create opportunities for children and students to learn and develop their skills for the future. The youth recreation facility is designed with a variety of spaces, including a health and lifestyles room, youth/teen game room, teen career educational center, technology center, gymnasium/multi-purpose room with stage, art and music labs, art gallery, dance studio, reading areas, and a full demonstration/learning kitchen. The project is being supported through a donation of up to $4 million by Clarence Otis, former CEO of Darden, and his wife, Jacqueline Bradley, a Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida board member for more than 20 years.

The site is located in one of the area’s oldest residential neighborhoods, just west of downtown Orlando, and will be part of a new community hub associated with the adjacent elementary school, an Early Childhood Learning Center and a Wellness Hub. To create a visual connection to the outdoors, the building is designed with open glass throughout, along with balconies and terraces. With construction set to begin in May 2019 and completion slated for April 2020, the facility will be built on land leased from Orange County Public Schools. The facility will also serve as Orange Center Elementary School’s gymnasium. Brasfield & Gorrie, of Winter Park, Fla., will serve as construction manager for the project.

In addition, SchenkelShultz Architecture also designed the new $2.3 million, 12,665-square-foot expansion of the Joe R. Lee Branch Boys & Girls Club in Eatonville, which is scheduled to begin construction this month. Located at 400 Ruffel Street, the new addition will more than double the size of the existing 9,500-square-foot facility designed by the firm. When completed in October 2019, the Eatonville branch improvements will include a dedicated teen center, new technology labs, digital arts lab, dance-aerobics studio and more. The Eatonville branch is named in honor of retired Darden CEO Joe R. Lee. Aagaard-Juergensen LLC, Orlando, serves as construction manager for the Eatonville project, as it did for the original facility which opened in 2011.

The design of both the new West Lakes facility and the expanding Eatonville branch align with the mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida to inspire and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.

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