Project Description
Intentions This 34,000-square-foot regional health facility located in an under-served neighborhood in southwest Atlanta combines under one roof a primary care clinic, a behavioral health clinic, childcare facilities, a dental clinic and a workforce community center. In doing so, it projects a holistic idea of wellness and a positive self-image for a challenged community. The building is also meant as a catalyst for future growth in the area. We wanted to create a structure that feels vibrant and alive. The roof was conceived as a dynamic, protective element, a metaphoric blanket, opening upward to welcome in the public. A standing-seam “clamp” folds over the roof to house mechanical equipment, identify major entries and serve as a beacon. Inside, a decentralized, double-height circulation lobby further integrates all the programmatic components. This design-build, fast-track project will be completed, from start to finish, in 275 days. Inspirations and Execution The notion of co-locating all these functions in a single facility to serve people of varied backgrounds led us to consider the communal folk art of quilting, in particular its social and aesthetic traditions in the African-American community. Equally exciting were the collaged paintings of Atlanta artist Radcliff Bailey, who pieces together found objects, archival photographs and historic imagery with jazz-like effects. These inspirations led to our studying how the building’s exterior materials could reflect the arrhythmic yet unified patterns of both quilting and improvisational music. We had to work with multiple stakeholders, including the city, county and community members, for example convincing all that the support and staff spaces could be successfully shared between the various services, maximizing the building’s efficiency. We are especially proud of our ability to design, detail and build such a sophisticated and elegant building under harsh economic and schedule constraints.