The City of Port Townsend’s goal for this 2,525-sf project was to repurpose a former Police Department facility, located on the waterfront of the city’s prominent historic downtown, into a multi-use community gathering and learning space. While originally envisioned as a more traditional meeting space, the Center’s first event was a wooden boat building class, which attests to the flexibility of the space. The renovation provided a new roof structure to replace the existing roof framing that had been damaged over the years. The old rough-sawn joists were salvaged, re-sawn, and reinstalled as a wall cladding within the Center. It serves to educate the visitors about the history of the building and the City while providing a warm, textural focal point in the large meeting room.

Funding for this project came in part from a FEMA Pre-hazard Mitigation Grant, which imposed conditions on what types of uses could be housed in the facility once it had been seismically upgraded.