Exercise in Modernism

You can tell from just looking at it: The new downtown Detroit YMCA is no ordinary Y. Made of vertical-seamed metal panels, concrete block, brick, Brazilian wood and lots of glass, the YMCA is a study in visual contrasts. Not just in materials, but in relation to its surroundings.

Taking up nearly 100,000 square feet on the corner of Broadway and Grand River, the new Y is a clean-lined vision of progress among buildings steeped in history. Built like it was born for the cover of Dwell magazine, the new Y combines impeccably high-minded modern architecture and design, provided by the SmithGroup, a Detroit-basesd national architecture firm that has been around since 1853. Inside, the Y offers fancy amenities and state-of-the-art workout equipment. This Y is rumored to be a model for a new guard of YMCAs to come — one that puts an emphasis on innovation and aesthetics as well as the valuable, community-based programming and promotion of healthy lifestyle the Y has long been known for.

Costing more than $30 million, the Boll Family YMCA (honoring the project’s largest contributors, John and Marlene Boll, who donated a whopping $4 million) boasts traditionally unheard-of frills like Italian Knoll furnishings, massage therapy rooms and the latest flat-screen TVs. It makes Bally’s look like the Wal-Mart of fitness centers.

Although the turnstile doors don’t officially open to the public until Dec. 5 (a promised deadline they’re determined to meet), Model D got a sneak peek at the much-anticipated, almost-finished facility. Take a tour — floor by floor, room by immaculate room — and get an idea of why all the fuss is so very well deserved.



First floor
Your first impression of the YMCA will be about its mammoth proportions. The 25-plus-foot front desk is overwhelmed by a massive, open lobby area, where upper-floor balconies and stairs hang overhead like avant-garde fire escapes. A wooden box seems to float in mid-air and slick tables and chairs spill forward from the Healthy Eating Café, which peddles a nourishing medley of sandwiches, smoothies and coffees. It’s open to the public, so even non-members can enjoy a bite to eat, as well as complimentary wireless Internet service.

Off to the immediate right you’ll notice a window, cut out of a sleek, frosted-glass wall. This, thespians, is the ticket booth for the YMCA’s own theater. The Y already is in talks with local groups like Walk & Squawk Performance Project, Matrix Theater Company, African Renaissance Theater Company and the Detroit Dance Collective. The open-stage theater seats 200 people and has a lighting booth overhead and two dressing rooms. The cinder block walls have five wood stripes running horizontally, tying in the lobby’s main attraction, the floating box, which is made entirely from Brazilian Ipe wood.

Down the hallway along the front desk — known as the “courtesy counter” to facility insiders — and past the administration offices, there’s a children’s center, which offers members the granddaddy of all perks: free childcare for kids, ages 6 months to 8 years old, for up to two hours. The full-blown child development center opens next fall. Seven brightly colored classrooms play host to a preschool and can accommodate 92 children — toddlers through kindergarteners — for hands-on learning programs. They’re adding an outdoor play area, too.

T minus one
Painted a rich blueberry, the downstairs is home to the Olympic-sized pool with four lap lanes. There’s another (warm-water) pool, about half the size, with zero-depth entry, a therapeutic massage area (not called a Jacuzzi, because the temperature is not as hot), and a kids’ splashing area. There will be, of course, swimming lessons and water aerobics, once the programs are up and running. Decorated with tiny blue tiles, wood walls and minimalist benches, three generous locker rooms are situated directly off the pool area — women’s, men’s and a family-friendly locker room (with oversized family dressing rooms).

VIP treatment comes in the form of daily laundry service. You drop your mesh bag in a laundry bin, and your laundered, folded clothes miraculously find their way to your personal locker ($30 a month). After a long workout, you can book a massage for one of the center’s private therapy rooms.

Second floor
Touting basketball, racquetball and squash courts, the gym will be used for league games, pick-up games, volleyball, gymnastic practices and meets, as well as a slew of other to-be-determined youth activities and groups. The gym even has collapsible stadium seating.

Two group fitness rooms are decked out. One has bright yellow LeMond RevMaster spinning bikes; the other is calming in a remarkably non-descript way — the perfect atmosphere for pilates, yoga and tai chi. There’s even a balcony off this room for outdoor classes during warm weather.

Battling for biggest attraction on the second floor are the 38-foot climbing wall and the Pointe Lounge, tucked inside the box seen floating in the lobby and protruding out through the building’s façade. A focal point of the Y, physically and metaphorically speaking, the Pointe Lounge is a members-only gathering place (21 years and up) with stylish leather furniture and wireless Internet. Ideally, this is the place where members will socialize, find a squash partner, hold meetings and just hang out. “We’re developing a sense of community within our own Y,” says Marcy Jordan, director of membership development.

Second (and a half) floor
In the open-air maze of white metal staircases and bright-colored walls, it sometimes seems like a compass might be helpful. Once you make it to the area named “2A,” you have successfully discovered the corridor dedicated to arts and humanities. If it sounds like a college course, you’re not that far off. In the not-so-distant future, there will be a full roster of classes, including (but barely touching the surface) graphic design, ceramics, painting and writing workshops.

Third floor
A wide-open area accommodates the impressive battalion of well-spaced top-of-the-line exercise equipment. You’ll find a cable workout circuit by Strive, Life Fitness and Free Motion machines, and a veritable fleet of cardio: stationary bikes, treadmills, elliptical machines, rowers and stair-steppers. There are also headset plug-in flat-screen TVs lining the walls and a high-tech wellness center, where you can sign up for personal training and get every test — from heart-rate to body-fat percentage — in the book.

Then, there’s the running track — a joint-friendly, banked track that overlooks the basketball, racquetball and squash courts on the inside, with a 270-degree view of the city on the outside.

Third (and a half) floor
Officially called “3A,” this floor brags the largest of the three group fitness rooms — think energy classes like kickboxing, high and low aerobics and hip-hop dance. The details, as always, are as good as they get, from the glossy suspended wood flooring to the ceiling wired with a state-of-the-art sound system. Where there aren’t mirrors, floor-to-ceiling windows (with automatic sun-shades) give way to grand views marked by the top of the Guardian Building.

Around the corner, a full run of Hammer Strength weights and an additional cluster of cardio machines give the power builders and free-weight lifters a place to pump some iron.

Wherever you are in the building, you never feel isolated. Windows linking various rooms to each other, even between floors, give the space a sense of openness and connectedness, while bringing the outside inside. Sounds like the perfect analogy for the Y’s relationship with Detroit.

---

all photographs copyright S. Kay Young