Cora Whitley Family Center

Cora Whitley Family Center

Tacoma, WA

The Cora Whitley Family Center is a new 32,500 SF building for the Multicultural Child + Family Hope Center, a nonprofit human services agency in Tacoma. Their mission is to provide culturally relevant support services to children and families through daycare, ECEAP, Head Start, and DSHS-contracted services. The new facility houses all of these offerings under one roof and enables the Family Center to continue expanding its programs from infant care to before- and after-school services. The center focuses on building positive relationships between teachers and students to support a child’s social, emotional, and academic development.

The wood-framed structure helped minimize construction costs. Open-web wood and steel floor trusses span the classroom spaces, using the corridor for bearing. This design allowed minimal framing that was quickly erected and supports maximum flexibility of classroom layout. Similarly, the roof framing consists of standard premanufactured trusses. The exception occurs in the gymnasium, where a custom glulam timber truss clearspans the space and supports parallel-chord, open-web wood-and-steel trusses. This exposed truss design created an open gymnasium with maximum height and a beautiful aesthetic.

DJC Article