The last vestige of the former Park Lake-now Greenbridge neighborhood is the Jim Wiley Community Center, which officially reopened Friday after a $5 million remodeling job.

The pyramid-like 1980 building is the only structure in the Greenbridge neighborhood left from the Park Lake days. It's been closed for months as construction crews renovated it.

The building is home to the Southwest branch of the Boys and Girls Club. It's also where the Greenbridge office of Neighborhood House is located. The YWCA Career Development Center helps people get training as well as employment. In addition, there's now a classroom with instructors from Highline Community College.

The new Wiley Community Center also has new community rooms, a computer lab and an improved kitchen to prepare the 1,600 meals a month it feeds kids.

Suspended from hall ceilings are sculptures of falling leaves hanging from abstract ladder-like, stainless steel forms. There are also some blue glass balls hanging from the ceiling that lend a celestial feeling to the place.

Although the building has been open a couple of months, its official reopening ceremony was held Friday. A host of politicians attended, including Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who represents most of Seattle in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also speaking were King County Councilman Dow Constantine, State Rep. Eileen Cody and State Rep. Joe McDermott (no relation to the congressman). About 200 people, including scores of youngsters from the Boys and Girls Club, attended the festivities.

"The Wiley Community Center is what America's social net should really look like when we weave the net into a facility that meets the needs of the local community," said Congressman McDermott, who was impressed with the center's variety of educational, employment, social work and recreational programs for a wide array of ages.

The Congressman told of how the building's namesake, who was on the King County Housing Authority's board of directors, made the agency a "national model."

"It reminds us of what America is all about, everyone helping one another to make a better community," McDermott said.

County Councilman Dow Constantine told the crowd, "When we build great places, great things will happen."

The new Jim Wiley Community Center has some environmental attributes too. For one, the building was recycled instead of demolished.

The center's gymnasium used to be an overly warm place. Architects designed a cupola with windows that open at the roof's highest peak to let out hot air.

Another change, the southern portion of the roof has 36 solar panels installed on it that will help produce electricity. Skylights and additional windows now brighten dim classrooms. Motion sensors turn off lights when no one is in a room.

There's a new round plaza for community gatherings on the south side of the center. Unseen beneath the plaza is a new storm-water detention pond.

The Jim Wiley Community Center is located at 9800 Eighth Ave. S.W. in White Center.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at timstc@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.