Healthcare Design - December 2022 - 10

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ONPROFIT COMMUNITY OF HOPE (COH) provides healthcare,
housing, and supportive services for low-income
families in Washington, D.C. One of its three healthcare
clinics in Ward 5, the Family Health and Birth
Center, serves as the only freestanding birthing center
in the capital city.
When the organization learned the building housing
that center had been sold, COH turned the situation
into an opportunity. Leaders sought out a new, bigger space within
its existing neighborhood that could accommodate its nationally accredited
Birth Center and family health services with room for additional exam
rooms, counseling services, and a pharmacy.
In September 2019, COH purchased a vacant 1960s-era building. Partnering
with Gensler's Washington, D.C., office, the project team conducted
a focus group in March 2020 to gather input from clients and staff. This
feedback helped define the project's design priorities, which included
creating a highly visible entry and reducing barriers between staff and
patients. " Urban healthcare centers often make security a highly visible
presence, which has the unintended consequence of making patients feel
unwelcome and unsafe, " says Bonny Slater, design director at Gensler. This
was solved by using low, open reception desks that signaled to patients that
they are welcome and trusted. Additionally, subtle
separation of the care team and exam spaces
was created by omitting doors in favor of separate
patient and staff corridors for circulation.
" The care team area is an open space located at
the end of the exam hallways, with no doors separating
it from the patients, " Slater says.
Recognizing the building's role as a birthing
center, the design team chose to use elements
such as curving ceilings, rounded corners, and
furnishings to lend a feminine feel to the space,
Slater says. Vibrant artwork by local artists and
artists of color is also incorporated throughout
the clinic, another important goal of the project,
notes Kelly Sweeney McShane, CEO of Community
of Hope.
MORE ONLINE: For additional images
of the project, visit HCDmagazine.com/
community-of-hope.
ABOVE: The birth center's
interior was designed to
embrace and celebrate
natural birth while
providing a space that
feels comfortable and
approachable. BELOW:
Colorful artwork by local
artists is showcased
throughout the facility. A
mixed-media mural by
Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell
captures joy, hope,
and love in everyday
interactions.
Once design priorities were identified, the
team next had to solve the challenge of fitting
the organization's desired program into the
building's tight structure, says Tama Duffy Day,
principal at Gensler. The original plan was to
create additions on all three floors, which wasn't
possible due to budget constraints and the rising
costs of building materials during the pandemic.
Instead, the project team decided on a
ground-floor expansion at the front of the building
to create a comfortably sized lobby without
sacrificing clinical functions, Slater notes. Additionally,
a third floor was added to the two-story
building to house a call center and staff offices.
Within the completed facility, exam rooms are
housed on the first floor, and a birthing suite offers
two home-like birth rooms and an accompanying
family room on the second floor along
with counseling rooms, a multipurpose community
education room, and pharmacy.
Opened in March, the Family Health and
Birth Center ultimately expanded from 8,000
to 20,000 square feet in the new location and
accommodates 14 patient exam rooms, up from
eight in the old clinic, and provides room to serve
25 percent more patients. " The design is working
really well and people love it, " McShane
says.-Joy Choquette, freelance writer
10
DECEMBER 2022
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
HALKIN MASON PHOTOGRAPHY
http://www.HCDmagazine.com/community-of-hope http://www.HCDmagazine.com/community-of-hope http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
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