Location:270 Gerrard St. E (at Parliament), Toronto

Budget: $100,000

Size: 3,000 s.f.

Team: Nolan Bentley (with Kearns Mancini Architects)

Year Completed: 2008

YSM Christian Community Centre is an urban ministry for at risk youth and children in Central East Toronto. The existing community centre staff had targeted certain spaces that were not functioning well. These spaces included: the kitchen serving the community room, the centre's program staff offices, and the children's room. Furthermore, it was identified that a new space was required for the youth. The design problem was to find space for all of these requirements. The solution was to provide an opening in a wall from the new Youth Room to a space called the 'Shared Room.' The other half of this space is the Children's Space which could be closed off to the Shared Space when used by the youth or vice versa.