Winning Look Design Selected For New Southside Senior Activities Center

Leaders of the Southside Senior Activities Center this week named an architect to design a proposed facility on South Ray Street.

Glen Cloninger, of Cloninger and Associates of Spokane, was selected following a design competition sponsored by the center.

His design of the center features wide overhanging eaves, a large covered portico, and tall, arched skylights to bring daylight into the building.

Cloninger said the design incorporates a mix of architectural traditions and shows a strong influence of the Arts and Crafts movement. He wants the building to blend into its neighborhood setting.

Center board members will now enter negotiations with Cloninger on a full design contract, said Dale Stedman, a member of the project’s advisory board.

During a lunch meeting Monday, Cloninger told the advisory board he believes only a small amount of earth will have to be moved to level out a small rise just west of the intersection of 26th and Ray.

The dirt would be spread into a depression near the center of the project site, which is just south of the two water reservoirs on South Ray Street.

The land is owned by the city and is being made available to the senior center through the Parks Department under a pair of leases.

The south end of the 1.7-acre site is dotted with mature ponderosa pines. Cloninger said none of them will be cut.

“This is one of those sites, for some reason, where the trees were all in the right position,” Cloninger told the advisory board.

“I think that was nature speaking to us in a positive way.”

The competition drew interest from 17 architects.

The new 12,000-square-foot facility would have a “great room” gathering area at its center. Offices, a kitchen, classrooms, lounge and health area would be on the perimeter.

The rear would have a patio, and paved parking would be screened by landscaping at the edge of the patio.

Currently, the center leases space at the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center.

Architecture professor emeritus David Scott is working with the center on developing the design. He has experience in large public projects throughout the Northwest.

At the same time, the center’s leaders are moving ahead with the initial stages of a fund-raising campaign for the $2 million project.

Kent Adams, the center’s fund-raising consultant, said Dr. Robert Shanewise and his wife, Helen, have agreed to serve as chairs of a committee to seek major gifts from foundations and corporations.

They join a growing number of influential South Side residents who have taken up roles and are providing momentum to the senior center project.

Already, the senior center has received a commitment from the Comstock Foundation to provide as much as $400,000 for the project as it is developed.

Center Director Myrna Johnson-Ross said at least 30 new seniors are added to the membership rolls each month. The center now has about 1,600 members.

Programs continue to grow in popularity with some classes now being moved out of the center to other locations, including the home of one instructor, she said.

A series of special events is being sponsored in February, including two speakers on prevention and recovery from joint injuries.

Dr. Paul Z. Pearce will talk about prevention, treatment and recovery on Feb. 9 at 12:45 p.m. at the center.

On Feb. 12, Dr. Tim Lovell will talk about joint replacement and advances being made in those techniques at a 1:30 p.m. session at the center.