Arriving at the Tolleston Opportunity Campus, home of the newest Crossroads YMCA facility in collaboration with Methodist Health and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Northwest Indiana, feels like pulling up to something special.
The roads to the campus, which features a massive building split between the Boys and Girls Club's original community center and the brand-new YMCA addition, are still littered with limbs and branches from the derecho that devastated Gary and left the city without power for over 14 days. In a city still recovering, a shining new beacon of community stands tall among the wreckage.
Pulse Technology has collaborated with the Crossroads YMCA on four projects (with a fifth in the works), and a shared design language connects each facility—while maintaining a unique identity for each location.
"We know that in a space like the YMCA, the furniture we provide has to achieve two goals: create a distinct look that is easily replicable across multiple facilities, and make sure each piece is durable enough to withstand continuous use," said Abigail Mancione, furniture designer at Pulse Technology. "With each project we've designed, we've learned which vinyl holds up best with the products facilities staff uses; we've learned what type of wear these pieces are put through daily; and we've learned how to give each facility its own character while maintaining the same shapes and lines."
The main lobby of the new facility features a mixture of soft and hard seating options, all within the Hon Company's signature lines. In particular, the Hon Tangram, a modular, angular sofa arranged in a zigzag shape, connects the Gary location to its sisters at Southlake, Hammond, and the Crown Point Sportscenter. Hon's Etch chairs also define the lobby area, adding a pop of orange against the neutral grey of the tables.
Architects and interior designers at Shive Hattery created a standout lobby with a range of colors, shapes, and installations built into the bones of the space. With the warm tones of the wooden accent wall in mind, designers Mancione and Jolee Allerding created a palette consisting of a burnt orange, a desaturated blue, and a neutral grey.
That carefully constructed color palette perfectly complements the most eye-catching element of the lobby: an installation of various braided ropes, all hand-braided by different groups within the community, representing different braiding styles. While Pulse had no hand in designing and facilitating the braid installation, the furnishings in that space needed to highlight that art piece, not take away from its grandeur.
"At Southlake, we opted to go with a teal, orange, and green palette. Something playful and vibrant to contrast against the greys baked into the architecture. At the Sportscenter, we opted for something more mature, with various shades of blue to match the more adult-oriented pickleball area while still keeping the families visiting the basketball and volleyball courts and lobby areas in mind," Mancione explained.
"But for the Tolleston Campus, we knew the architecture would have warm wooden features and, of course, the braid installation, so keeping the colors complementary allowed us to make sure everything stood out in contrast to one another."
Additionally, two large community spaces within the facility feature deep teal accents, and to complement those statement walls and accessories, Pulse's design team opted for clean, white desks.
Most importantly, Pulse Technology furnished the Gary YMCA with functionality and the community's needs in mind. With spaces for studying, resting between games, or simply passing the time between the end of the school day and the beginning of community children's nighttime routines, each piece installed at the Tolleston Opportunity Campus is built to be well-loved for years to come.
"We're so honored and privileged to have worked on this project with the Crossroads YMCA," Allerding said. "Finishing up our fourth collaboration with the Y is surreal and rewarding in a way unique to these projects, where you can imagine the impact on the community throughout the entire process, and we can't wait to continue to help create spaces like these across the Region."
The facility is now open to the public.
Check out the full gallery slideshow below for more images from inside the new Gary YMCA at the Tolleston Opportunity Campus, and view all of our project galleries here.
Contact Pulse Technology today to see how we can transform your space.