Downtown Community Center Back Better Than Ever

Left: This is what remained of the digital media lab. Right: The computer lab, today, a new room with many more stations. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Who could have imagined it?

Once the place had been pumped free of floodwater and the ruins of classrooms devoted to art, ceramics, music, computers and cooking had settled into a heaping, dumpster-bound mess, who could have conjured these bright, colorful rooms, the cozier lounge and the new and improved after-school classes that opened last month in the Downtown Community Center? The staff of Manhattan Youth, which runs the center, always kept their eyes on the future.

“We have a great team. We knew we would come back,” said the organization’s executive director, Bob Townley. “When we saw the water we just cried that we had to do so much work. But we never thought that would be the end of us.”

Each afternoon, hundreds of children spill into the rebuilt $2.4 million technology and cultural center to design video games, whip up recipes, work with clay, explore science projects or just do homework. Coming this month: a 400-gallon coral reef aquarium.

Indeed, the staff saw opportunity as well as hard work in starting fresh.  “We know a lot from maintaining the programs for five years,” said Alex Roche, the center’s director. “We saw what worked and what didn’t.”

So it’s a whole new world down there.

“The potential is just incredible,” said Susan Kay, the after-school site director. “The hurricane shook us up and made us see what we had and where we want to go, and put us on a great path.”