A new facility known as the ‘Angel of Tahoe Building’ serves a variety of needs for the boys and girls of Lake Tahoe.
The Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe plays an important role in the community, providing a wide range of after-school activities in a “safe, positive and welcoming environment” for youths aged 5 to 18. While the Lake Tahoe area is known for its wealthy second homeowners, the club serves a wide range of social and economic demographics, including free and low monthly admission fees for lower-income families.
In 2019, when a generous donation by local philanthropist Lisa Maloff, known as the ‘Angel of Tahoe,’ allowed the club to move forward with plans for a new home for the Boys and Girls Club, everyone involved recognized the importance of creating a facility that reflected the specific needs of the city nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
“The community relies on this resource,” says LPA Sacramento Studio Director Julian Watt. “The Boys and Girls Club is the only after-school program in the area and is vital for working families of all income levels. The building was needed to ensure the continuation of the club.”
Spaces in the new center are designed to serve multiple roles and accommodate a wide range of users.
The club’s new 12,000-square-foot facility — known as the “Angel of Tahoe Building,” in honor of Maloff, who passed away in 2022 — creates a collaborative, open, environmentally sensitive building that fits seamlessly into the natural landscape. On a 4.5-acre site next to the local elementary school, the building is a resilient, economical and energy-efficient multipurpose facility that reflects the character of the organization and the community.
“We found LPA very understanding of our budget constraints and appreciated their willingness to adapt materials and the design for lower costs,” says Jude Wood, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe. “They worked with our staff to provide the most functional design possible.”
But function was only part of the equation for an organization charged with promoting the academic achievement, wellness, leadership, good citizenship, social and emotional growth of its members. Every Boys and Girls Club requires an extra layer to ensure every child feels welcome and secure.
“Safety was of paramount importance to our organization, and LPA solutions were both innovative and cost effective,” Wood says.
Classroom spaces were designed around flexibility and durability.
A Mountain Facility
Any public building in the Lake Tahoe area must confront the unique challenges of the local climate, which includes large snowfalls most winters. The new Boys and Girls Club has two covered entrances and a protected path that connects to the adjacent elementary school. The main entrance, with its large overhang, serves as the club’s front porch to foster community gathering during student pickup times.
We found LPA very understanding of our budget constraints and appreciated their willingness to adapt materials and the design for lower costs."
– Jude Wood, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe
The roof structure, designed by LPA structural engineers, features two interlocking V-columns that provide support and offer a clear nod to the Boys and Girls Club’s famous logo, the work of legendary designer Saul Bass, depicting two interlocking hands.
“It was one of the moments where an opportunity emerged that made the building a real part of the Boys and Girls Club family,” Watt says.
Exposed Alaskan yellow cedar glulam beams create a visual connection to the local forest.
Omnipresent concerns about wildfires informed the building’s placement on the site — the structure couldn’t be too near to combustible materials. Design teams used a variety of tools to minimize tree removal and reduce the building’s solar heat gain. The walls also had to be fire resistant, which was accomplished with fiber cement paneling and mass timber glulam beams.
The building is designed to provide a link to the surrounding environment and serve as a teaching tool about sustainability and construction. Exposed Alaskan yellow cedar glulam beams are highlighted, inside and out, creating a visual connection to the local forest. Biophilic design was inspired by Lake Tahoe’s crystal-blue waters and the variety of pine trees found in the Tahoe Basin, including shimmering blue tiles and a warm, natural material palette. In warmer months, wide rollup doors open spaces to the outdoors.
The new Boys and Girls Club is designed to meet the unique challenges of the local environment.
“We wanted to put nature on display,” Watt says. “From inside to outside, you want to see as much as possible.”
Designers followed Collaborative for High Performing Schools standards, a LEED-like national green building standard for schools, which required the careful balancing of sustainability and durability concerns. Materials were either partly recycled, easily recycled or both. Passive strategies — proper siting, orientation and massing to maximize daylighting and views to the surrounding views of nature — helped reduce energy use by 58% from an industry baseline.
Safety was of paramount importance to our organization, and LPA solutions were both innovative and cost effective."
– Jude Wood, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe
LPA’s education team helped design spaces to suit the needs of the boys and girls at different age levels.
A Club for Boys and Girls
The new facility is designed to support the wide range of big, messy activities that are the hallmark of a thriving Boys and Girls Club, including kilns, art spaces, a STEM room and big, interactive spaces that can be used for anything the kids imagine. Durability was essential. Flooring included concrete surfaces, rubber tiles and sturdy carpets. “Sometimes you can get materials that are a little too delicate,” says LPA interior designer Stacy Auslam. “Kids, especially young kids, do not care about any of that stuff.”
LPA’s education team played a key role, helping to design spaces to suit the needs of the boys and girls at different age levels. The club’s central game room serves as the collaborative hub, with various scaled supportive programmatic spaces that unfold from this main spine. The bright interiors, reflecting the Boys and Girls Club’s signature colors, are designed to accommodate a wide range of users — from kindergarten children to adults renting the facility. A variety of furniture, including stools, mobile chairs and beanbags, adds flexibility.
“You don’t want to put every kid in one chair,” Auslam says. “We wanted to make sure that the furniture is as nimble as the staff and the curriculum.”
Since the club opened in 2022, staff have found new and different ways to use the spaces, creating the type of collaborative, fun environment that is the trademark of the Boys and Girls Club. The facility fits seamlessly into the environment, connecting to the elementary school and providing the community with a resource that will last for generations.
