Boyle Street Community Services Renovation & Expansion

Oct 1

Turning the main street into a “welcome mat” to support the community

By: Avid Architecture Inc.

Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) works to support people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Currently, community members congregate on the open sidewalk in front of BSCS where there is minimal built infrastructure to support them and they are susceptible to human predators and gang bullying. What if the main street frontage could facilitate more hope, greater opportunity, and deeper connection?

The front entrance of the BSCS Renovation and Expansion will integrate vegetation and multiple seating options with shade and protection from the elements to generate a dynamic gathering spot: a “welcome mat” for the renovated building. Access to green space is important for everyone’s mental and physical health, especially during a pandemic. In addition to new gardens out front, a roof garden visible from the street and a rear courtyard provide ample outdoor gathering spaces with varied programming.

Improving the building’s appearance fosters a stronger sense of place for the community, reinforcing that it is maintained and cared for, and reducing incidents of crime such as vandalism and graffiti. The project also seeks to express the cultural identity of its predominantly Indigenous users, and to minimize its impact on the environment and adapt for future needs by investing in durable and multifunctional materials.

At present, the primary goal of Boyle's facility is survival: its community members contend with a lack of security, overcrowding, and inaccessibility. Changing our main streets to be more of a “welcome mat” is a great replicable opportunity to address existing risks and provide a safer space.

Details:

Budget: Renovation projects are always challenging. Rehabilitation requires site specific design considerations, displacement of those using the space, and dependable funding resources. Substantial renovations such as those proposed for the BSCS Renovation and Expansion project. For example, BSCS will likely require building upgrades within the next few years costing around $2.3 million for maintaining the current facility conditions. Our project proposes a renovation with facility expansion that would require nearly 16-22million. However, when directly comparing the basic maintenance costs verses the renovation and expansion costs, it is hard to account for the missed opportunity of not renovating and expanding the facility. With a renovation and expansion there are many more benefits over simply maintaining, like improving building efficiencies, or creating more space for to those who still do not have access to safer support networks.

Materials and Fabrication: The building optimizes its environmental and operational sustainability by working to ensure that every building element serves multiple functions, and through a considered approach to material selection that privileges durability, product life-cycle, and aesthetic quality. An example of a truly multi-functional building elements selected for the BSCS Renovation and Expansion project was the ceramic frit on windows: in addition to the lively pattern they create, they also help reduce heat gain, minimize glare, and increase privacy for interior spaces.

Installation and other services: Honouring the community heritage and integrating the existing architectural identity of Boyle Street into the renovation is a key part of respecting and celebrating the building’s current users and making sure no one feels like their space has been erased. An important example of an element that was selected to remain was the inspiring mural on the front façade, which provides a colorful and thoughtful welcome to BSCS. Related to this, the building’s design strives to respect and express the cultural identities of its users through features such as the wooden screening motif used throughout and the use of gentle curves and circular geometry. These strategies aim to help facilitate a connection between land, community, self, and others and to offer community members ways to connect with the renovated building and foster their sense of belonging.