DeMeo Teen Center
Santa Rosa, CA
Responding to the need for a dynamic gathering place for local teenagers, this project is a vibrant mix of uses integrated into a single facility. Asked to create a facility that was non-institutional in character, the design team produced a "high tech warehouse" with a playful variety of forms and spaces, including a nightclub, gymnasium, art studio, computer lab, study room, teaching kitchen, recording studio, art studio, exhibit areas and administrative offices.
The load bearing brick walls, tube steel arcade, metal decking and exposed structural steel allow the teenagers to view the structural skeleton of the building. With its rounded forms and curved standing seam roof, the resulting building evokes both the massing and design of both the building it replaced and the many surrounding historic warehouses and trains.