Inside Centro Hispano's new space, functional and meaningful

Visitors walking through the doors of Centro Hispano of Dane County’s new facility will encounter a sleek, modern, building that honors the community's heritage through design.

Many of the building’s architectural elements reflect the desire for the organization to have “a safe, strong, sustainable home.” Located on the corner of Hughes Place and Cypress Way in Madison, every piece of the new building's design is intentional — for function, meaning or both. 

Meeting spaces now include small play areas for kids. Centro Hispano serves over 2,500 families and in the old location children either crowded into small offices with their parents or played in the lobby. 

Centro Hispano began in the 1980s to support Cuban refugees arriving in Madison and over the past 40 years has expanded its role in the community and services. The nonprofit offers immigration services, youth and family programming and workforce training, and it serves as a cultural hub. 

The Cap Times received an advanced look at the facility Wednesday, before a grand opening with the public Friday morning. 

The classrooms on the second floor of the new location have doors that connect them. One can walk from the computer lab used by workforce program participants into the youth room and so on. Centro Hispano Executive Director Karen Menéndez Coller said it’s a way to foster natural mentorships and connections between the differing age demographics Centro Hispano serves. 

“A lot of what we do is across the lifespan,” she said.  

The reception desk in the lobby of Centro Hispano’s new building is made from black volcanic lava stone. 

“In Central America, we have a lot of volcanoes, a lot of fire, a lot of strength, a lot of heat and it's supposed to be a reflection on that,” Menéndez Coller told the Cap Times during the advance tour. 

“We are a community that needs to feel powerful and needs to think about how we're going to make things different for our families,” she said. 

The lobby also contains an adobe wall, an element of Latinx architectural tradition. The carpet on the second floor where staff offices are located has lines and patterns that mimic the Nazca Lines in Peru, geoglyphs etched into desert sands. 

Centro Hispano serves Dane County immigrants, many from Mexico and Latin America, with new arrival needs and support they may require decades later. Menéndez Coller said the organization reflects the population they serve.

“We're a pretty global staff.” 

Calli means home

Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, Madison Mayor Sayta Rhodes-Conway and dozens of leaders in south central Wisconsin’s Latino community gathered in Centro’s new courtyard Friday morning to observe a sacred blessing of the new space, receive tours of the building, and listen to Latin music in a grand opening. 

The celebration is the culmination of a two-year effort and decades-long dream for the organization. Centro Hispano’s capital campaign recently met its $20 million goal after receiving a $2 million gift from billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. 

The new building is called Calli, an Aztec symbol meaning home, and it’s a few blocks from Centro Hispano’s current location on Badger Road. Centro’s southside Madison neighborhood has the highest concentration of low-income Latinx people in the city, according to the nonprofit’s website. 

The capital campaign emphasized the demand from the community, noting all Centro Hispano workforce and educational programs carry waitlists. In addition to providing money for the construction of the new building, donations will also support expanded workforce and educational programming. 

“Centro can no longer keep up with the pace of the needs of the growing Latinx community in its current facility,” the organization’s website states. 

Calli will allow the nonprofit to serve an estimated 1,000 additional community members per year. Centro Hispano plans to double the afterschool and summer programs and develop additional healthcare workforce training initiatives.

Sustainability measures

At Centro Hispano’s new location, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors open onto a plaza complete with freshly planted trees, string lights and a fountain at the center. Menéndez Coller said the design is meant to keep the organization connected to the neighborhood, the city and its surroundings. 

“There's going to be a fluidity to the space and the environment and the sun and the land,” she said. 

Calli includes a number of environmental sustainability measures including a geothermal HVAC system, a 177-panel rooftop solar array that provides over 67 kilowatts of energy, and a water reclamation tank.

Centro Hispano’s director of administration, Elizabeth Garcia Hall, said during the building design process the organization’s leaders put together a list of all possible sustainability measures for the space and allowed staff to vote on what was important to them. 

“It's super meaningful because it's the use of staff voice and choice,” Garcia Hall said.

The sustainability measures for the building show up in less obvious ways as well, even underfoot. The steps on the staircase leading from the lobby to the second floor offices are made from local recycled urban ash wood. 

“There's a lot of connection with Earth in this building,” Garcia Hall said. 

Alluding to the challenges faced by the immigrant community in the last decade, Menéndez Coller told the crowd gathered Friday that this new building was a continuation of the growth of Centro Hispano, and a place of sanctuary.

“That (previous) space at 810 Badger Road was a reflection of our community,” she said, “and so we have chosen to reclaim our ancestral ways of healing so that we can move on.”