Summit Point Youth Hub, San Diego, CA

Most often a Youth Room is a buried room in some remote corner of the campus filled with mismatched donated sofa’s.  At Summit Point Church, we met with the youth and collaborated to create an appealing multi-functional “Youth Hub”, central to the campus with indoor/outdoor convertible spaces. We removed all the physical barriers for youth to cross and let them let the room breath and expand without limits and in blends the paths which allow intergenerational chance encounters.  With a tight budget and lacking a building space large enough to support a growing youth program, we carved out a corner of the existing classroom building, absorbed some hallway space and then eroded the perimeter walls to the exterior with garage and bifold doors in order to create a space large enough for their desired program. We created a large canopy (similar to the one previously constructed with the Sanctuary remodel) to expand the “Youth Room” to the exterior where we lowered the patio to create a performance stage complete with a large monitor (which swings inside to out), theater lighting and a sound system.  Anchoring the courtyard is a large linear social firepit surrounded by terraced seating built into the slope. A new basketball court and exterior multi-functional play areas were added to create the ultimate Youth Hub.  The hub has been a great tool in building their youth program and the exterior spaces are also used for other church social events.