Supporting Carnegie Community Centre & The Gathering Place

Over the years, Proscenium has held donation drives to support two exceptional organizations we have worked on in the past, Carnegie Community Centre and The Gathering Place in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. This year, we are excited to be collecting physical items from our staff to bundle together and drop off to benefit their programs!

A little bit of history:

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE

Carnegie Centre is a Class A Heritage Building built in 1903 as the Carnegie Library. Today, Carnegie Community Centre — often referred to as the living room of the Downtown Eastside — provides social, educational, cultural, and recreational activities on-site and nearby at Oppenheimer Park. The programs serve low income adults with the goal of nurturing mind, body, and spirit in a safe and welcoming environment.

Proscenium worked with the City of Vancouver in 2010 to design upgrades to this important heritage building on Hastings and Main Street. The renovation included upgrading windows, skylights and the central spiral staircase, including adding a stainless steel handrail for improved patron safety and security. We also restored historic material on the interior of the building, including marble stair treads, cast iron stair structure, ceramic floors and wall tile. The exterior got a clean and repainting of concrete and stonework and relaying of granite entry stairs.

THE GATHERING PLACE

The Gathering Place Community Centre offers programs and services to the Downtown South community. They primarily serve vulnerable populations, including people on lower income, people with disabilities, seniors, people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, the LGBTQ community, youth, and people who are homeless.

PAI worked with the City of Vancouver in 2012 to update the existing community building, including accessible redesigns of high-traffic entry reception areas on both the lower and main levels. Space planning and finishes were also provided for the main programming rooms and washrooms. Contemporary elements helped to refresh the design, including new exterior signage on the corner of Helmcken and Smithe Street for increased visibility and a feature stair made of perforated Baltic Ply wood panel. The organization’s blue branding colour was used throughout to enliven and energize the space for community patrons.

Find out more or support these great local organizations here!