Caregivers' Lounge, Lower East Side Girls Club. Image © SOM
When the Lower Eastside Girls Club decided to expand its headquarters at East 8th Street and Avenue D in Alphabet City, it brought in an all-female team of architects, designers and engineers from SOM, JB&B and Arup to revamp its space.
The group, working pro bono, designed a 5,000-square-foot expansion to the girls club’s existing 35,000-square-foot community center at 402 East 8th Street. The renovation added several new public areas, including an entry hall with a gallery and event space that will display the work of local artists, a podcasting station with a storefront facing the street, and a cafe/kitchen that will also front the street.