An Inter-Generational Resource for Chinese-Americans in Flushing CPC Queens Community Center
Founded in 1965, the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is the nation’s largest Asian-American social services organization, providing over 60,000 New York City community members each year with a wide range of programs aimed at promoting social and economic empowerment. Faced with growing demand for programming, CPC partnered with Denham Wolf to construct a new 10-story facility in Flushing, Queens to respond to the needs of young children and senior citizens in the community.
As a grassroots provider of childhood education, school-age care, youth services, workforce development, and senior services for Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities, it was critical for CPC to expand its programmatic capabilities to accommodate increased popularity and patronage. When CPC acquired a new property in Flushing, one of the largest communities of ethnic Chinese individuals outside of Asia, the organization seized the opportunity to expand to meet the diverse needs of local youth and seniors – two demographics that tend to be underserved by existing public infrastructure.
The construction of the CPC Queens Community Center demonstrates Denham Wolf’s persistence in the face of complexity. The site rests on a high water table, requiring a creative approach to excavating and building the community center’s foundation. Ultimately, Denham Wolf implemented a design modeled after a bath tub, ensuring that the presence of water would not impact the structural integrity of the building. The planning and execution of this complex design element allowed the CPC Queens Community Center to attain expansive cellar space, an essential component of the organization’s mission for the facility.
CPC engaged Denham Wolf as project manager to turn their dream of creating a new facility into a reality. With comprehensive oversight from our project management team, CPC unveiled a 10-story, 28,000 square foot community center with dedicated space for food service, child care, senior services, and inter-generational learning and recreation.
The CPC Queens Community Center takes advantage of stacked, vertical space to maximize programmatic capabilities and provide protected areas where children and seniors can gather, learn, and play. In addition to shared spaces that allow for inter-generational activities, each demographic also benefits from its own dedicated outdoor space – an exceptional feature given the verticality of the building and the density of the surrounding neighborhood.
This project marks the third successful collaboration between CPC and Denham Wolf. Together, both organizations are committed to continuing to empower a wide range of individuals in Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities through holistic programming paired with creative and thoughtfully designed facilities.
“The CPC Queens Community Center is truly a feat of engineering given the complexity of the site and the density of the surrounding neighborhood. We are pleased that our determination and creativity resulted in the construction of a space that will serve such a wide range of individuals and demographics in the local community.”
—Jonathan Denham, Co-Founder at Denham Wolf