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Cypress Creek YMCA Programs Building
 Architect
Brave
/ Architecture
4617 Montrose Boulevard, #C230, Houston, TX 77006
www.bravearchitecture.com
General Description
Location: Houston, Texas
Date Bid: July 2007
Construction Period: Aug 2007 to Oct 2008
Total Square Feet: 17,000 Site: 0.75 acre.
Number of Buildings: One.
Building Size: First floor, 15,255; upper level storage and
mechanical mezzanine (accessible by pull down ladder), 1,745;
total, 17,000 square feet.
Building Height: First floor, 29’ 7 1/4”; total, 29’ 7 1/4”.
Basic Construction Type: New/IIB/Pre-Engineered.
Foundation: Cast-in-place, reinforced, slab-on-grade.
Exterior Walls: Metal, cast stone. Roof: Metal, coal tar
built up. Floors: Concrete. Interior Walls: CMU, metal
stud drywall.
Construction Team
Structural Engineer: CSF Civil, Structural & Forensic Engineering
Solutions - 11210 Steeplecrest Drive, #202, Houston, TX 77065
General Contractor: Primetex Corporation - 6523 Craigway Road,
Spring, TX 77389
Project Manager: The Mathis Group - 13135 Dairy Ashford Road,
#390, Sugar Land, TX 77478
Electrical Engineer: Windrose Electrical Services # Design Build
- 11320 FM 529 Rd. #C, Houston, TX 77041
Mechanical Engineer: Custom Mechanical # Design Build - 17223
Winding Oak Court, Cypress, TX 77429
The Cypress Creek YMCA Programs Building is a facility near the existing
Cypress Creek YMCA. During the process of developing a program for the
facility the firm also did a master plan for the entire Cypress Creek
YMCA site. The site consists of a lush wooded area with a lake, athletic
fields, a running trail and campus style buildings spread out over the
site. The building's location was selected to bring many of these
elements together connecting the athletic fields and additional parking
with the main campus building. The new Programs Building is a welcome
addition to this arrangement of existing buildings and site
organization.
The Programs Building was planned on an existing YMCA site situating the
building within the 100-year flood plain and the revised 10-year flood
plain set up after Tropical Storm Allison and adopted in June 2007.
Often, the 10-year flood plain places more stringent conditions on the
elevation of the finished floor. In this case it put the finished floor
of the structure 24 inches above the base flood elevation. To accomplish
this, the slab was raised and the site was re-graded with approximately
5'-0" of select fill. Because of the building's increase in elevation,
the landscaping design focused on transitioning gradually to surrounding
lower areas around the building. Accordingly, storm mitigation was
reevaluated, enlarging the existing lake on the site.
The Programs Building serves approximately 300 children for after-school
and summer programs. Clad in metal panels and stone, the pre-engineered
steel structure offered flexibility in the floor plan's organization,
allowing all secondary programmatic spaces to center around the large
exercise room.
The organization and design of the floor plan was to increase the
possibilities of multi-functionality. Additionally, these spaces
surround the central room with varying degrees of privacy. The dance
room with parent's viewing area is placed to the side as it is used as a
space for practice and performance - requiring additional control of
privacy and ambient noise. The viewing room provides this extra buffer
between the dance room and exercise room. A large multi-purpose room is
located down the main axis and provides a larger, more private space for
meetings or other activities. Two smaller multi-purpose rooms open
directly onto the exercise room and can be closed off from the space
with large garage doors. When these doors are open the square footage of
the exercise room increases by almost a third. The programmatic
challenge was to not limit the types or number of uses for each space.
This multi-functional characteristic of these rooms was a necessity and
extends throughout the building's various spaces.
A reception area with administrative offices greets everyone entering
the building from the entry courtyard and canopy. This canopy,
constructed of rough sawn timber and aluminum, continues the multi-use
theme by providing cover for exterior circulation as well as protected
space for outdoor activities.
The size and occupancy of the building requires it to be fitted with
sprinklers by code. Because of its location in a rural area on the
outskirts of Houston where existing water lines are scarce, fitting the
building with sprinklers would have been cost-prohibitive. The solution
was to divide the building into two smaller buildings separated by a
two-hour fire separation wall. The wall was strategically placed as to
go unnoticed and yet to allow for the functional flexibility of the
floor plan's activity spaces.
Project Management for this project was done by The Mathis Group. They
do much of the construction coordination for the Houston Family YMCA's
renovation and new construction projects. Brave / Architecture has
teamed with TMG on a few of these projects and this repetition of the
team's framework has made the communication and coordination during
design and construction a near seamless effort.
Brave / Architecture has designed many projects for the Greater Houston
YMCA. In the past 10 years the firm has worked with them on the
programming and design for several renovations and new buildings. In
doing so, there is an excellent understanding between the Owner and
Architect concerning the needs and goals that the facilities need to
meet. Continuing this working relationship, Brave / Architecture is
currently working on the construction documents for the renovation of
and addition to the existing Cypress Creek YMCA building. More
importantly, this will bring the entire facility up to the latest
standards and fulfill their member's needs as one of the largest YMCA's
nationwide.
Manufacturers
DIV. 8: Entrances & Storefronts, Windows: Vistawall.
DIV. 9: Acoustical: Armstrong, USG; Specialty Floor:
ActionCush.
DIV. 13: Pre-Engineered Building: Alliance.
DIV. 26: Lighting: Lithonia, Lightolier, Bega.
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