Neighborhood input is being sought for the Agassiz Road Duck House, which has been closed for almost 40 years.

Last week, the Fenway Community Center held an open meeting to hear the neighborhood’s priorities for a potential renovation Work on the project has so far been made possible by Fens Fund, a neighborhood support fund, which raised $16,000 from the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust and the Boston Planning Department.

The funds have been put toward the architecture and urban design company, Landing Studio, Landing Studio said they would be taking feedback from the meeting and returning in the fall with potential designs and another opportunity for community input.

From there, the project still must go through Boston Parks and Recreation (BPR) for approval and then through a bidding process with contractors to implement the project, so groundbreaking on the renovation is likely to be a few years away.

Situated at a midpoint between the East and West Fens, the Duck House enjoys a shaded canopy in a quieter part of the Back Bay Fens. As it stands now, the building consists of two multi-stall men's and women's restrooms, at a slight elevation from the surrounding landscape, which slopes gradually downward towards the Muddy River to the north.

Heavy wooden doors on that north side lead to a separate entrance for a storage area that rests slightly lower than the bathrooms, following the landscapes gradual slope.

Currently, due to the step up required to enter the bathrooms and main floor, any renovation plans will need to come ready to accommodate the American Disability Accessibility (ADA) guidelines, which are not currently met by the building or the sidewalks leading from Agassiz Road.

Landing Studio presented several preliminary examples that showed how the entire floor of the building could be leveled off into a single elevation, greatly expanding the useable space within the Duck House.

At the meeting, Landing Studio representatives Dan Adams, a founding partner, and members of the design team, Jake Okrent and Chris Weaver, expressed enthusiasm to be working with the building’s high-quality original materials. Light grey terrazzo tiles with marble chips line the bathroom floors, white glazed bricks provide sturdy walls, and white marble dividers separate the internal bathroom stalls.

The presence of a crawl space beneath the building gives space for adding electric infrastructure and potentially climate control, like heating and cooling.

Fenway residents at the meeting had a robust conversation about ideas for the space and shared some concerns centered around the maintenance of the public restrooms and preserving the space as a community-centric location adjoining the East and West Fens.

“It’s probably the only inactive space left in the Fens. There’s not much left where’s there’s nothing,” said one resident. “When we had our bird walk, that’s where the birds are.”

A spokesperson for BPR assured residents that the project was “intended to be a resource for the neighborhood and not a citywide destination.”

Many residents seemed in favor of ideas that placed a contractor, such as a small cafe or deli, in charge of the space so that bathrooms would be maintained. The possibility of storing pop-up furniture for local organizations to meet or hold small events was also met favorably.