$8 million Senior Center renovation plans detailed

UPDATED, June 18: How will an $8 million building project better serve Arlington’s seniors? That question, and free ice cream treats, drew about 50 people out on a chilly, rainy afternoon to a presentation on upcoming renovations planned for the Arlington Senior Center.

The June 13 event’s featured speakers were Jennifer Raitt, Arlington’s director of planning and community development and secretary to the Redevelopment Board, and Christine Bongiorno, the town’s director of Health and Human Services.

Malcolm Hamilton, president of the nonprofit Arlington Seniors Association (ASA), and Susan Carp, director of the Arlington Council on Aging (CoA), also contributed to the discussion.

Chimneys, windows, doors

Raitt noted that the Senior Center is in a beautiful 125-year-old building (formerly, the Central School) on the National Register of Historic Places. To preserve most of the exterior historical detail while improving access and usability for all, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), planners and the Arlington Historical Commission obtained appropriate state code variances. Original “smokestacks,” now used to ventilate bathrooms, will be topped by weather-protecting copper chimney caps, the slate roof will be repaired (seepage has affected the whole building) and brickwork will be repointed. The windows will remain, with interior storm windows added.

An ADA waiver allows the original, Academy Street entrance and stairway to stay, but it will be reinforced. New iron handrails will improve safety along sloping walkways. Two Maple Street entry doors (not original to the building) will be expanded and topped with copper. The non-ADA-compliant ramp on Maple Street is too steep, so an exterior lift will replace it.

Behind the building, new screening will hide mechanical equipment, bollards will guide traffic flow and a “roofway” will be installed for the delivery entrance.

Major interior changes planned

Out with the old. / Rose Udics photo

On the ground floor, new seating areas next to CoA offices will be set off from the large main room, which will have a staffed reception desk. A restroom will be next to the entryway. The main room can be used for classes, meetings and a café. A room with two pool tables and comfortable furniture and another game room with card tables will be created. Better signs will guide people.

The first floor will have a separate yoga and exercise studio, eliminating walk-through traffic and reducing noise that carries through an open stairwell, which will be enclosed. A foldable divider will let the room be used for smaller meetings.

Plans include rooms for arts and crafts, areas for meeting friends and a large, commercial-grade, ADA-compliant kitchen, where food is stored, warmed and cooked.

Renovations will begin with the second floor, which has housed the STEP social-service program. It will move to Newton, its classrooms reconfigured as offices for the Department of Health and Human Services, Veterans’ Affairs (moving from Town Hall) and the Arlington Retirement Board. These agencies will operate there while the lower levels are being renovated.

Timeline, new name, disruption

Lease issues prevented renovations from starting in September as planned. Public bidding on construction will begin this summer, likely taking 60 days, giving contractors and subcontractors time to tour the site. Work on the second floor will not start until late fall, but the entire project is expected to be completed by December 2020.

As part of a national movement to attract people in their 60s and 70s to use “senior” centers, the agency will have a new name: the Arlington Community Center.

Ideally, programs, classes and meals will all move to one location during construction. Raitt, Hamilton and Carp are touring churches and agencies to find spaces having two ADA-compliant means of egress wide enough for a wheelchair, but such space is scarce, and groups charge “up to $75 per hour per room,” said Hamilton.

Bongiorno said rental costs are budgeted — if funds are insufficient, she will ask the town for more. Details on program locations should be available in a few weeks. Raitt seemed to indicate that some programs, such as yoga, could not move into Town Hall but did not elaborate.

Pointed questioning during Q&A

It was clear the audience wanted more details and resolution for some long-standing problems.

First-floor concerns:

• The Arlington Seniors Association will move to the ground floor. Hamilton is part of efforts to raise $300,000 for its new furniture. All contributions are welcome. You may donate here >> Residents on June 17 began receiving mailed fund-raising appeals for furnishings, with naming opportunities for the various rooms. The cards are from the Arlington Health and Human Services Charitable Corp., a nonprofit. 
• An odd ceiling causes echoes, bounces sounds from other floors and contains ductwork that may need rerouting. Closing off the stairwell will improve acoustics, and the room divider will also reduce noise.
• Lighting, audio equipment and other technology will be updated. Motorized screens will enable visual presentations and movies to be set up quickly and easily.
• Intrusive closets will be eliminated, with storage created elsewhere, freeing floor space for yoga and other well-attended classes.

Community center?

• Despite its broader-sounding new name, the “Community” Center “will focus on people who are 60 and older,” Bongiorno said, “No major changes in programs” will occur, though the center “always strives for flexibility, to meet evolving needs,” adding by way of example that iPad classes were nonexistent 20 years ago.
• The center will not use any space for children’s day care.

Parking!

Parking near the center is so challenging that many seniors no longer try to come, especially in winter, many say. Bongiorno acknowledged “Parking is a huge problem.” Several people expressed annoyance that as more town offices move into the building, spaces for seniors are reduced — many spots are restricted to employees and program staff. Only four are handicapped slots, yet many seniors have a disability that prevents walking far.

Hamilton clarified June 18 that an audience questioners referred to the office moves as another drain on parking. “The fact is that public parking along the back and side of the building has never accommodated more that a few spaces for visitors,” he said.

• Bongiorno said employees park on streets or behind the Masonic Temple; others take public transportation or walk, so she can’t say how many use unrestricted spaces. The STEP program’s 27 spaces will be freed up, but safety and ADA requirements will prohibit parking in some space now used.
• Raitt said she was unaware of limited handicapped parking. That will be reviewed.
• Hamilton urged more use of the CoA van, but one attendee said the van is inconvenient, too small to pick up many passengers and costs $3 per round trip — a lot over a year.
• During construction, parking will be further restricted.

“So hot”: Air-conditioning was another hot topic. The large main room is “so hot it’s intolerable.”

• Bongiorno acknowledged that the building’s air-conditioning “is still offline. The second floor and the arts center are sweltering.” Plans are to rehab the system, replacing one chiller and fixing a pump.
• The town “will provide portable fans for the next 1½ years,” because the HVAC system won’t be replaced until renovation is nearly completed. A new AC system will be installed, and heating and electrical systems will be upgraded.

Restrooms, cleanliness:

• Restrooms with more stalls will be on multiple floors, so people need not travel from a far end of the building to reach one quickly.
• An area for coats and slushy winter boots will be created so that people doing yoga won’t be lying on dirty, wet floors.
  

When to vacate?

• Programs will move out by Dec. 31. ASA, CoA and DHHS offices will remain. 

Landscaping:

• The Garden Club will help landscape the Maple Street entryway, though a commercial company might also be used.
• Benches have been repaired; picnic tables and more outdoor seating might be added later.

Find construction details here (scroll down) >>  The ASA’s annual meeting on June 21 will also feature a slide show about the renovations.

This news summary was published Monday, June 17, 2019, and updated June 18, to add copy and a photo.