IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019 - 26

as an orienting system. Staff members
provide directions to exam rooms by
color, making it easy to find your way
regardless of the language you speak,
Barnette says.
The final design delivered precisely
the message of empowerment and
respect that Barnette's team aspired
to achieve. Shortly after it opened,
she recalls speaking to a young,
undocumented woman who came to
an educational event at the new site
and asked her whom the clinic was created for. When
Barnette told her it was a healthcare facility for all the
women in Queens-including her-she was shocked. "She
said, 'But it's so pretty,'" Barnette recalls. "It's one of my
favorite stories about this space."

Beauty on a Budget
Meeting all of these safety, comfort, quality, and branding
goals in a single design is made even more challenging since
Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization. "They
don't have a lot of money, and because they aren't building
a lot of facilities all the time, they are a little naive about
the process," says Chiang, who only works with nonprofits.
When she worked on the Ithaca project, she made
a point of guiding the team through the entire process,
educating them on what to expect at each milestone and
helping them make choices that made the most sense for
their design aesthetic and budget. That included taking
charge of managing the site and helping them choose
materials and fixtures that were extremely durable so they
wouldn't have to be replaced. "We want these projects to
go well, so we do whatever we can to help them make the
best decisions."

We want all patients-
regardless of ethnicity, gender,
identity, income, language,
or immigration status-to
feel welcome and respected
and to know that they are
receiving the highest-quality
healthcare without judgment."
-Meg Barnette

perspective

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Chiang's team also identified opportunities to
create custom details that added quality and ease to the
space without spending a lot of money. Chiang recalls
designing a maple brochure rack with custom slots to
accommodate each of the roughly 100 pamphlets that
Planned Parenthood hands out. "They had been using a
metal display that they had cobbled together," she says.
But when her team recognized that these educational
materials were core to the facility's offering, they took
the time to make something better. "The rack is pleasing
to the eye, easy to access, and it makes the provision of
service flow efficiently."
Along with managing material costs, these designers
also help avoid scope creep by nudging the client teams to
make decisions and pointing out where delays could occur,
which Barnette appreciated. "It helped us manage our
expectations and reflected their shared commitment to our
mission," she says.
When working with any nonprofit, it's helpful if you
believe in the mission of the organization, says Joan
Blumenfeld, FAIA, FIIDA, design principal and global
interior design director emeritus at Perkins+Will in New
York. "Planned Parenthood wants to work with vendors who
get what they are about and care about their work," she says.
For many of these designers, working on these
projects has been among the highlights of their careers.
Blumenfeld's first experience working for Planned
Parenthood was in college when she held a parttime job compiling data about birth control access
for underprivileged women. Years later, she had the
opportunity to bid on a project to design the new
Planned Parenthood headquarters in New York,
which opened in 2003, and she shared that experience
in her pitch. "I believe in their mission, and I told
them that," she says. "Planned Parenthood is an
organization for women, led by women, and they all
have a shared sense of purpose. They are in a class
by themselves." n

Photos by: (top) Allen Russ Photography

One of the biggest patient
requests for Planned
Parenthood site design is
privacy. At the Carol Whitehill
Moses Center, waiting areas
are private but not isolated.

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IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019

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