Remodel in the cards for Si View; North Bends community center adding classrooms, safety and storage

This floor plan shows the planned remodel that adds classroom space and other features to the historic Si View Community Center in North Bend.

image credit: Courtesy photo

Si View Community Center staff is planning a remodel that will increase not only the lifespan of the 76-year-old landmark building, but also the amount of useable space inside it. The project goals include replacing the flooring in the gym and lobby, adding storage and classroom space, and many safety improvements, but no changes to the buildings current footprint.

Instead, the existing space will be reconfigured, interior walls moved, and room dividers added in the gym and stage areas to allow the already-full building some flexibility in its programming.

Were busting the seams, says Si View Director Travis Stombaugh, but thats nothing new. The district has already expanded into Meadowbrook Farm, the Mount Si Senior Center and area schools with some programmingthey run both adult and youth recreation programs, including basketball, dance, and after-school activitiesand recently signed a contract with North Bend for management and program use of the North Bend Railroad Depot.

With only three classrooms in the building, the district is always looking for more room, Stombaugh said, and after the remodel, were really gaining two full programming spaces.

We can put more programming in there and we can better facilitate the programming we have, Stombaugh said. We can improve the flow of the whole community center.

Among the most visible changes planned for the project are an art wall in the lobby, new hardwood and slate flooring, and the installation of a gas insert for the buildings stone fireplace.

The building is a King aCounty landmark, and updates to it are governed by the King County Landmark Commission. All materials used have to be true to the time the center was built, in 1938. While the commission OKed the remodel in general, it rejected the proposed slate floors in the lobby, and added a condition requiring the district to re-use in the classroom spaces any of the fir flooring to be pulled out of the gym.

That flooring, Stombaugh told the North Bend City Council Dec. 2 in his successful appeal of the landmarks commission decision, cant really be re-used. It has been worn down so much that the nail heads from its installation are visible, he said.

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Remodel in the cards for Si View; North Bends community center adding classrooms, safety and storage