The clients (the city’s housing authority) wanted a building that was in sharp contrast to the bland institutional projects that their patients typically associate with public health. The facility needed to be open and welcoming, yet provide patients privacy and dignity. The result is a large open central reception area buffered from the bustling neighborhood by east and west courtyards.
From the central reception, patients are called to smaller waiting areas and clusters of private consultation rooms are carved out along circulation paths using vibrant colors, spaces of varying shape, and bare fluorescent fixture arrays. The building relies on simple, inexpensively constructed, shed forms. Rather than a single volume, the form was broken up in order to provide natural light in every space related to patient functions.
Size: 11,500 Sq. Ft.
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Client: San Antonio Metro Health District