EDMONDS — It’s more than a name change.
The Edmonds Senior Center’s new $11 million building will be called the Edmonds Waterfront Center. The goal is for it to serve both older adults and the community at large, said Farrell Fleming, the senior center’s executive director.
People can get a first look at designs for the two-story building from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the senior center. There also will be opportunities to make suggestions on its design, he said.
Organizers hope to hear people’s comments on a beach-restoration project that will take place as part of the construction and hear reactions to the environmental impacts and long-term environmental sustainability of the building.
Creosote logs in a nearby old bulkhead will be removed, storm water will be treated and the addition of sand to the beach will absorb wave action, Fleming said.
The restoration is part of a project estimated to cost $1.3 million to provide greater beach access and restore and improve the beach habitat, said Carrie Hite, the city’s director of parks, recreation and cultural services. The plan also calls for a rain garden so runoff from the center’s parking lot doesn’t flow directly into Puget Sound.
Plans call for the two-story, 26,000-square-foot Waterfront Center building to be constructed at an elevation of 15 feet, three feet higher than the current building, Fleming said.
It will be built on the same site as the current senior center, a former boat storage building which opened in 1961.
So far, the project has about $3.5 million in donations. The senior center is waiting to hear back on four major grants requests it has made, and hopes to have another $1 million in pledges and grants by this summer, Fleming said.
By early fall “we’ll have a very good sense if we can break ground as we’d like to in the latter part of 2017,” he said.
During construction, activities at the senior center will be temporarily relocated. Once it opens, the new building generally will have activities for older adults from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., with parks and recreation and other community activities scheduled from 4 until 9 p.m.
One of the most remarkable things about the new building is its location on the waterfront, Fleming said, one more reason for the change in the center’s name. “It will be a huge addition to the city,” he said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
Open house
An open house for information on the Edmonds Waterfront Center, which will replace the existing Edmonds Senior Center, is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the senior center, 220 Railroad Ave. The meeting, co-hosted by Sustainable Edmonds, will feature a short program at 6 p.m. on the latest plans for the new activity center and shoreline restoration planned for the site.
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