Oak Harbor Senior Center is taking a step forward in aspirations to build a new facility some day by hiring a nationally-known architecture firm to create a design.

Senior Center Director Mike McIntyre told the Oak Harbor City Council last week that he hoped to hire Ohio-based LifeSpan Design Studio for an amount not greater than $49,000. The fee will come from money set aside over 15 years, now totaling $109,000, in the Senior Services Building Account.

McIntyre pointed out that the need for a bigger, better, “adult multi-purpose support facility” will grow as the giant Baby Boomer generation continues to gray.

In 1986, about 25 percent of the county’s population was 50 years old and older. By 2025, about 47 percent of the population will be in the age range, according to estimates from Island County.

“The needs and wants of the Boomer Generation, as well as those of most older adults, vary greatly from those of past seniors,” McIntyre wrote in his agenda bill. “Facilities built to accommodate the needs of less active older adults do not appeal to, and are not supported by, the large majority of Boomers and most seniors living today.”

McIntyre said LifeSpan Design was chosen through a request for qualifications. The company’s Web site states that the company is a national leader in designing buildings “to make them functional and comfortable for people at all stages in the lifespan.”

LifeSpan will create design plans, drawings and construction cost estimates.

McIntyre did not discuss how a new facility would be funded. In May, the Oak Harbor City Council adopted a list of project priorities which puts construction of a new Senior Center at number 12 in a list of 17 projects.

The list estimates the cost of a new center at $5.2 million.

In the end, the council unanimously agreed with McIntyre and authorized the agreement with LifeSpan Design.