Backers of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center took a big step forward this week in bringing the first LGBT center in the Lehigh Valley to fruition.
At a press conference Monday in Allentown, the location for the planned center was announced — 1021 W. Turner St. The 7,000-square-foot property is owned by the city of Allentown, which plans to sell it to the center for $1.
The Pennsylvania Diversity Network in June unveiled a fundraising campaign for the center, which is named for longtime Lehigh Valley activists Liz Bradbury and Dr. Patricia Sullivan. There are only five other LGBT community centers in Pennsylvania.
Monday’s press conference was held in conjunction with National LGBT Community Center Awareness Day, and a proclamation from President Obama on the importance of LGBT community centers was read during the event.
“There is certainly a great amount of national interest in seeing these LGBT community centers succeed, and we’re really happy to be a part of that,” said center founder and executive director Adrian Shanker.
The center had been working with the Allentown Redevelopment Authority and Mayor Ed Pawlowski to identify a site. The Turner Street building, which has been vacant for 20 years, is located in the Old Allentown historical district.
“It’s only a couple blocks from major redevelopment happening with the Neighborhood Improvement Zone. There’s the new home for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the headquarters of a number of major corporations, like National Penn Bank. There’s a lot of urban revitalization about five blocks from where we are,” Shanker said. “And we intend to complement that. Having a community center in the middle of a community, rather than a vacant building, can change things a bit.”
In the latest Census data, Allentown was found to have the third-largest population of same-sex couples in the state, and they are largely anchored in the neighborhood that will house the center, which is also home to the city’s two gay bars.
“Allentown is a diverse community,” Pawlowski said Monday. “Any 21st-century city that is active, growing and vibrant is going to be diverse. We celebrate that diversity today with the announcement of the site of the Bradley-Sullivan LGBT Community Center. We’re pleased to be able to assist in the effort to bring services to the people of the community.”
The center will offer an array of LGBT resources. Bradbury, who will serve as senior director of programs of the organization, said it will continue many of the initiatives PDN, of which she is executive director, has offered for years, including an information line and resource website.
“We’ll do this while we also provide monthly educational and cultural programs to demonstrate some of what we’ll be able to offer once the center is built,” Bradbury said.
An opening date for the center is a ways off. First, the design team has to finalize the full design plan, which will take through the end of this year. Then, backers have to begin the process of acquiring the building from the Redevelopment Authority, which involves approval from a number of city boards.
Then renovations can begin.
“We had a structural assessment done and the building is structurally sound, the foundation’s solid and the exterior and load-bearing walls are fine,” Shanker said. “But the building’s been vacant for 20 years, so pretty much everything else has to go.”
But, a major boon for the project is that the entire design team is working pro-bono.
“That’s huge. That’s worth about $75,000 in design work if we had to pay for that by ourselves,” Shanker said. “So this isn’t chump change. These are real commitments received from reputable firms of licensed, professional engineers. People in Lehigh Valley have been pleasantly surprised to see this because this is not the norm for a nonprofit to receive this kind of support.”
Project management and fire-protection engineering is being led by Dan Kohn of Kohn Engineering, while Barry Isett and Associates is leading project management and environmental engineering. Christopher S. Bleschmidt of Lock Ridge Engineering will lead structural engineering and Joseph McCarthy will focus on electrical and mechanical engineering. The project has enlisted Robert Sandoval of Howard Kulp Architects and zoning attorney Michael D. Recchiuti.
For more information, visit www.bradburysullivancenter.org.