Bloomington-Normal YMCA Easterseals of Central Illinois Bloomington, Ill.

Project Description:

After nearly a decade of planning and fundraising, the Bloomington-Normal YMCA’s new 75,000-square-foot facility opened in August of 2022. The community-based facility provides a new home for the YMCA, as well as Easterseals of Central Illinois, which occupies 9,500-square-feet of the building. The new facility was imagined as a radically inclusive space and was built with the commitment to never turn away anyone on the grounds of their background or financial situation. In designing the facility, planners sought to offer programming and amenities that the city’s downtown location couldn’t. The new Y is able to host swim meets and may even start a water polo league. The facility’s second pool is for recreation and physical therapy. It features a zero-depth entry with submersible wheelchairs, a river current to rehab knees and hips, and is always kept at a warm 88 degrees.

In all, the new state-of-the-art facility includes four youth basketball courts, two full-sized basketball courts, six pickleball courts, two volleyball courts, a walking track, a 6,000-square-foot wellness center, three group exercise studios, two community rooms, a teen/intergenerational space, a recreation/therapy pool, an eight-lane, 25-yard competition pool, a universal locker space, a roof top terrace, child watch and playground space, a chapel, a steam room, and a sauna.