The Boston Center for Youth and Families (BCYF) Paris Street Community Center will temporarily close on Friday for a $10 million renovation to the facility.
The community center, one of the oldest municipal buildings in all the city, will reopen in fall 2016.
The project will allow Paris Street to receive the repairs and upgrades necessary to offer many additional resources to the East Boston community for the next 100 years.
Upgrades will include interior upgrades of all mechanical systems and boilers, window replacements, exterior and interior door replacements, athletic facility improvements, teledata upgrades and new furniture and equipment. This project will not affect the BCYF Paris Street Pool across the street from Paris Street, which will remain open.
All BCYF Paris Street Community Center programming and staff will move to the Mario Umana Academy, 312 Border Street. Because there is no weight room or cardio room at the Academy, programs that use those spaces will not be offered in the temporary location. The relocated community center will be open Monday through Friday from 1-9 p.m.
With the renovation of this center, nearly all BCYF centers in free-standing municipal buildings – those not in BPS school buildings – have been renovated at least once in the past decade. This is an extensive project that took several years to research and design.
“A $10 million renovation to the BCYF Paris Community Center means more than just a new building for this community,” said Paris Street Director Nicole DaSilva. “It brings with it a computer lab with additional computers, a brand-new teen center, a community room, new exercise rooms, a new after-school classroom and much more! This renovation will allow us to increase and improve upon existing programs. Over the next 12-14 months we will continue to serve youth in our community through space that has been provided to us at the Mario Umana Academy. We want to thank Mayor Walsh for presenting us with this amazing opportunity.”