Michigan YMCA Buildings

[RustTown]

Posts your city's YMCA(s) building(s).

Here's Lansing's former downtown YMCA which vacated the building a few years ago. It had an interesting indoor track on the 3rd floor, I think it was, and a big basketball court on the second floor in the attached annex.

The other branches in the area are architecturally unremarkable.

[Phizzy]

Grand Rapids:

Found at flickr.com.

[GRDadof3]

And this one Phizzy:

[dtown]

that first GR one is nice looking. When was it built?

[GRDadof3]

that first GR one is nice looking. When was it built?

It just opened last year, and it's very busy.

[RustTown]

Here's Detroit's new downtown branch, the Boll Family YMCA. The original renderings looked better, IMO, but the building serves its purpose very well, and is busy.

Taken by forumer Southen

Taken by forumer Southen

It's conveniently located next to a people mover station, on the revitalized Broadway corridor. Originally, it was supposed to go through the building.

[dtown]

hmmm, thats not a bad looking building. It wouldve been cool if the PM went through the building.

[Jasoncw]

the GR and Detroit ones are the newest I think. I like the Detroit one better though, because I feel like it's more open to the street, and intergrated into the rest of the city better. The one in GR was pretty closed in, and the building itself was sorta isolated feeling. Visually though, I like the GR one better.

[RustTown]

This wasn't created to be some kind of competition or "vs." thread, so let's not make it one. People can't seem to handle those with maturing, anyway. Each should be judged on its own merits.

Here's Jackson downtown YMCA

Really kind of cheap looking, but who knows what the inside looks out.

[dtown]

^i agree with you there, but i guess it gets the job done.

[tony speller]

I like the old GR YMCA a lot (thanks GRDad). I have a ton of good memories from going there after school as a kid (free swimming and stuff for city kids. not sure if they still do that). The new one looks really nice. Though, it is in a weird spot. The other one was SMACK in the middle of downtown... while the new one is across the river and on the other side of the expressway. seems TOTALLY isolated! maybe it isn't though. It does look nice when you drive by it on 131. That whole area around there (GVSU, YMCA, etc) is getting really built up... so maybe it won't seem so out of the way in a few years.

[tony speller]

Camp Custer, Battle Creek... circa WWI

I don't think this is what the Village People had in mind.

or.... did they???

[mendelman]

Here is the former Alpena, MI YMCA (northern lower Michigan):

This hasn't been a YCMA for about 60-70 years. There is currently no YMCA in Alpena.

[dtown]

what uses the building now?

[mendelman]

what uses the building now?

Elk's Lodge and various office/service renters

[wolverine]

I took a few pictures last night of the new Ann Arbor YMCA. My God, is the building beautiful. I never took a good look at really because I normally passed by it at night when driving. But man its pretty tall when you stop and look at it. Since I took the pictures at night and the streelights were off at that particular location, the building is basically blaring light out through its windows, so you cant really see the overall brick structure too well. But I will post them anyways.

[ZachariahDaMan]

Inkster

[suydam]

Kalamazoo

[Michi]

Here is the former Alpena, MI YMCA (northern lower Michigan):

This hasn't been a YCMA for about 60-70 years. There is currently no YMCA in Alpena.

Interesting. I had a friend who lived in that building the year after we graduated high school in 1999. The apartments are really cool and huge!