By Brian Denitzio
News Editor

(Second in a two-part series)

Despite the close quarters, the mood was giddy as nearly 100 residents and activists packed the Alexander-Magnolia community room in Uphams Corner on a Saturday afternoon in early January. They'd come to hear that Dorchester was selected to receive up to $80 million to fund a new state-of-the-art community center on Dudley Street in Uphams Corner. For many that day, the announcement was a dream come true&emdash;the realization of more than a decade of planning and hoping for some kind of facility in the neighborhood. But as the gift was described, it seemed that few in the room realized just how big their dreams could be.

'An extravagant program'

Funding for the new community center is available through the Salvation Army, which is overseeing design and construction of the facility, and will also serve as its administrator. Joan Kroc, the wife of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc left $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army when she died in 2004. That money will fund the construction of community centers across the country based on the model of the flagship Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in San Diego, which was featured in last week's edition of the Reporter.

Draft plans of the Kroc Center to be built on Dudley Street show a structure that is smaller in size than the San Diego center, but one that gives up nothing in its quality, or in the impact it could have on the community. In its final composition, the Dudley Street center will be around 90,000-95,000-sq.-ft. in size, according to Lt. Col. Fred Van Brunt, division commander of the Massachusetts Salvation Army. The center is planned for a parcel of land on Dudley Street, and will be bordered on one side by the Dudley Village development, and Clifton Street on the other. The nearby Uphams Corner station of the Fairmount Line is currently undergoing a renovation, giving the center easy access to mass transit.

The building is being designed by a Chelsea-based firm called The Architectural Team, and on Tuesday evening Mark Rosenshein, the project's lead architect presented draft plans and answered questions at a meeting at DSNI's Dudley Street offices.

The Dudley Street Kroc Center's most prominent feature is arguably its leisure pool. With a planned capacity of up to 200 people, the pool will range in depth from zero to five feet, and include a zero-depth entry point, as well as water slides and other amenitites. The temperature of the pool will be warm, near 80 degrees, Van Brunt estimated, and its configuration allows for more flexibility than a traditional lap pool.

The center's chapel/theater space will hold up to 300 persons, and boast an 800-900 sq. ft. performance stage. Behind that stage will sit a rehearsal stage that is an exact replica of the performance stage.

The center will feature a state-of-the-art fitness facility, equipped with free weights and cardiovascular machines. There are also plans for up to three high school regulation basketball courts, out door recreation areas, as well as dance and performance studios. Plans also include space for a family enrichment center with two classrooms for day car that can hold a total of 40 children.

At any given time the building will have the capacity to hold up to 1,000 people. Preliminary planning suggests that building will operate 14-15 hours daily according to Drew Forster, who is planning programming for the Salvation Army.

Speaking Tuesday night, Rosenshein said that the design of the building is simple, and will fit the character of the area&emdash;it's what happens inside the building that will be dynamic.

"It is not an extravagant building, it is an extravagant program," said Rosenshein.

The community had hoped to construct a new community center in the area for more than 10 years. As such, much planning had already taken place around the types of services and programs that would be appropriate and desirable in a community center. But nothing envisioned during that time was anywhere near the size of the Kroc Center.

"We ran a Dudley young architects program in the early '90s who dreamed about two community centers not even a quarter of the size of the Kroc Center, and we've been dreaming ever since," said John Barros, executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) a group that is a leading partner with the Salvation Army in the planning and programming of the new center.

A series of community meetings have been held regarding planning for the Kroc Center since January, and at each meeting, Barros said that he can see that the impact the building can have is sinking in for more people.

"At the last meeting when the architect took us through a 3-D virtual tour, I could see some eyes open up and some kids' jaws drop," said Barros. "We all began to realize what that type of facility can mean. There's nothing like it in Boston, so to think about it down your street is amazing."

For the center to move towards construction, a number of key milestones must be met. Forster and the Salvation Army had to submit a plan of programming by May 31. The next critical date in the process is September 30, when the project will not only have to submit architectural drawings and secure all of its discretionary permits, but also demonstrate commitments for $15 million in donations that will support the endowment of the center.

Van Brunt said that he's been overwhelmed by the community involvement in the process thus far and is confident that the required funds can be raised.

"We feel extremely good about where we are at this point in time, and feel less challenges," said Van Brunt. "We're going to be on target for meeting the deadlines before us, we have every reason to believe that we will be able to make this work."

The impact that the Kroc Center will have on Dudley Street is hard to underestimate, Barros and Van Brunt said.

"Five to seven years from now people are going to come to this neighborhood and it will rival any neighborhood in Boston," said Barros. He stressed that an important consideration in their planning has been ensuring that housing in the area remains affordable, and that the center can be a valuable resource for those who need it. The adjacent Dudley Village development, for instance, includes 50-low income units.

"Because of our partnership with the city to do affordable housing, our neighborhood is in a better position to have a community center that can be taken advantage of by low-income families," said Barros.

Similar to what the San Diego center did in its neighborhood, Van Brunt believes that the Kroc Center can bolster improvement efforts that have been long underway.

"The neighborhood looks like it wants to come back," said Van Brunt. "We are going to be part of what is already taking place in that neighborhood, of a resurgence of community."