Brookline Teen Center in the Works

The Brookline Teen Center is a masterpiece in making. 

Matthew Cooney, the first fulltime executive director for the Brookline Teen Center showed a presentation of the plans for the new Teen Center at the Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, March 5.

The vision for the design of the new Teen Center has been in the works for about seven years, but Cooney announced that an end date is in sight. “We will be opening a 12,000 square foot facility here in Brookline in the fall of 2013,” Cooney said. “An old auto body shop at built at 40 Aspinwall Avenue, which was a big bunker of a building, was waiting to be envisioned. It has a great central location in Coolidge Corner, near the high school and the majority of K-8 students.”

The Teen Center has a 25-year lease for the two-story facility, which will house two lanes of candlepin bowling, a recording studio, a half-court basketball court, a healthy café, a game and media room, an academic mezzanine with classroom space and private work spaces for projects, studying or tutoring. The classroom space will be very high-tech with wifi and projection screens.

The downstairs will house a dance and yoga studio. The gym space can also be converted to a stage for concerts and dances. There will also be a large drop down screen for Super Bowl and Election watching parties as well as keynote speakers and conferences. “One of the things that the architect tried to do was find away to make this space as useful as possible for all different interests,” Cooney said.

Cooney said that there would be an opportunity for teens to learn how to use the equipment and be paid to use it for various functions.

This facility will hopefully be LEED Certified, which Cooney said will provide a good example to kids about reducing a carbon footprint.

“Teens have been involved in this project since its inception,” Cooney said. “They continue to be involved in the look, the design, the furniture, the feel, the colors, and the technology. This needs to be built for teens, by teens.”

The Teen Center should be open in time for the 2013-14 school year.