Design Preserves History While Expanding Space
ALACHUA– With the former Cleather H. Hathcock, Sr. Community Center now demolished, plans for its replacement have moved from community wish lists and conceptual sketches to detailed architectural drawings, with city officials saying the project is nearing the bidding and construction phase.
The Alachua City Commission received an updated presentation on Aug. 10 from Monarch Design Group, providing its most detailed look yet at the proposed new facility at 15818 N.W. 140th Street.
The presentation marked nearly a year since the city began a planning process that included repeated meetings with commissioners, city staff and residents.
Barnett Chenault, president of Monarch Design Group, told commissioners the process was intentionally designed to gather input at several stages rather than move directly from an initial concept to construction.
“We wanted a very iterative and very involved process along the way,” Chenault said.
That process included multiple rounds of meetings with commissioners and city staff, as well as community workshops at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex. More than 1,600 invitations were sent encouraging residents to participate and identify what they wanted in a new community center.
The city held community workshops on Aug. 21 and Sept. 25, 2025, following earlier commission discussions about the future of the facility.
Chenault said several themes remained consistent throughout those meetings. Residents wanted a larger and more functional center, opportunities for both seniors and younger residents, improved infrastructure and a design that preserved the history and character associated with the Hathcock Center.
“Overwhelmingly everyone wanted to do honor and preserve the culture and heritage of the site,” Chenault said.
Those priorities are now reflected in a design that retains some of the most recognizable characteristics of the former center while greatly expanding the building’s usefulness.
One of those features is the porch.
The porch surrounding the former Hathcock Center served as more than an architectural element. It was a gathering place in its own right, particularly for seniors who regularly used the facility. The new design maintains a substantial covered porch and positions it to provide access and views in several directions.
Vice Mayor Shirley Green Brown said preserving that feature was particularly meaningful.
“The porch is the highlight,” Green Brown said. “Oftentimes, when I would go up to the Hathcock Center, there were the seniors sitting on the porch.”
She also praised the community engagement process, calling the workshops well attended and saying residents were sincere in sharing their ideas for the new facility.
The center itself, however, will be considerably more functional than the structure it replaces.
Chenault said the principal community room in the former center was approximately 723 square feet. The proposed community room is approximately 1,400 square feet, nearly twice as large and almost the size of the enclosed portion of the former center itself.
The larger room is being designed as a flexible space capable of accommodating tables and chairs, presentations, fixed seating and other configurations depending on the event.
The kitchen will also grow significantly. Chenault said the former kitchen contained only about 77 square feet, while the proposed kitchen is approximately 340 square feet and is designed to support events in the larger community room.
The kitchen can also be accessed from outside, allowing food and supplies to be unloaded without moving through the rest of the facility.
Plans also include improved restrooms, office space, meeting and conference rooms, storage areas and a separate exhibit area devoted to the city’s history and culture.
That exhibit area has emerged as one of the more distinctive components of the project.
Located near the entrance, the space is designed with large areas of glass so displays can be viewed from the lobby even when the exhibit room itself is closed. Plans also call for a full-height mural and space for rotating exhibits and physical artifacts.
Chenault said the design team has been working with the city’s Senior Advisory Committee and Parks and Recreation committee as the project has developed. Parks and Recreation is expected to help establish guidelines for selecting artwork and other cultural elements for the facility.
Green Brown said the historical component will provide an opportunity to pass local history to younger generations.
“Alachua has so much rich history, and we need to share it with that younger generation,” she said.
Commissioner Jennifer Ringersen echoed that enthusiasm, saying the exhibit area could allow the city to rotate displays over time and incorporate contributions reflecting different eras and parts of the community.
The exterior design also deliberately borrows from familiar Alachua architecture.
Renderings presented to commissioners show a standing-seam metal roof, lap siding, prominent porches, dormers, brackets and other features inspired by buildings throughout the city, as well as elements of the former Hathcock Center.
Chenault said the goal was not to copy another building, but to create a new facility that looks as though it belongs in Alachua.
The site itself will also receive improvements. The building is planned for the northeast portion of the property, giving it visibility from Northwest 140th Street. Plans include sidewalks and accessibility improvements, as well as paving a portion of the roadway along the north side of the property, an infrastructure issue identified early in the planning process.
The project timeline presented to commissioners shows the programming phase running from summer 2025 through spring 2026, followed by design, construction documents and permitting through late summer 2026.
Chenault said the design team is now in the final portion of that work.
“We are steps away from being able to start what everyone’s looking forward to, which is the actual construction of the project,” he said.
The next phase will be putting the project out for bid, followed by construction.
Commissioner Jacob Fletcher asked about several operational details, including building occupancy, restrooms, staffing, future office uses and funding.
Chenault said the building is being designed for multiple uses rather than a single fixed occupancy. The community room will be treated as an assembly space, while office portions of the building fall under different occupancy calculations. He also confirmed that the restroom facilities are being designed for accessibility.
City Manager Rodolfo Valladares said potential users of the office space could include CareerSource and the Alachua County Property Appraiser, although final decisions have not been made.
Fletcher also asked whether additional employees would be needed to operate the facility. Valladares said the city’s current staffing configuration should be sufficient for the facility as presently designed.
Funding remains part of the city’s ongoing budget process.
Fletcher noted that the city previously sought funding through the state legislative delegation but did not receive it and asked whether that would affect completion of the project.
Valladares said outside funding would have helped, but made clear the city intends to proceed.
“This item has been the vision of this board,” Valladares said. “We will get it done.”
He added that city officials are working through the current budget process to identify and allocate funding for construction.
The Aug. 10 presentation represents a significant change from where the project stood a year earlier. In 2025, commissioners and residents were still debating room sizes, building configurations, community priorities and whether the aging Hathcock Center could somehow be preserved.
Structural evaluations later found extensive deterioration, code deficiencies and accessibility problems in the old building. The commission voted 4-1 in March to demolish it and continue with plans for a replacement.
That building is now gone.
The site is now planned for a larger community center developed through months of commission meetings, staff planning sessions, and public workshops, designed to retain the former Hathcock Center’s role as a gathering place while significantly expanding interior space and programming capacity.
The project has now moved beyond design and demolition, with city officials preparing to put the work out for bid as the next step toward construction.
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