Contract - October 2010 - (Page 61)

Amenities along the Esplanade include a multimedia library (opposite top), a natatorium for aquatherapy (opposite bottom), and an art studio (left). The handrail seen in the foreground of the view into the studio is actually an art installation by artist Cliff Garten. “That 400-ft.-long piece of sculpture had to meet each and every piece of unforgiving code,” says Susan Pontious, public art program director for the San Francisco Arts Commission. But for the 70 percent of Laguna Honda’s residents in wheelchairs who use the handrail to pull themselves along the corridor, it has become a highly interactive, tactile, and functional addition to the art program. Today, it is a stepping stone, a place to reinvigorate them for the next step in their lives by promoting maximum physical and cognitive independence.” With an extensive program that includes everything from rehabilitation with hope of independent life to a continuum of care for the aged and infirm that emphasizes independence for as long as possible, the design team made “residentfocused care” its overarching goal. “We took it as a point of inspiration,” says Anshen+Allen principal Jeff Logan. “The neighborhood concept we generated was inspired by that directive.” Floor plans, circulation paths, and amenities were all developed to approximate varying levels of domesticity and independent life, and the design solution began with the massing of the buildings nestled in the hills of the Laguna Honda site in the western part of the city. Each floor of the two, multistory residential towers (one five stories, one seven) contains distinct “households” of 15 residents each, combined in “neighborhoods” of four households (or 60 residents). At this most intimate level, residents enjoy private or semiprivate rooms with shared bathrooms, household living rooms with flat-screen television, and core neighborhood centers with activity space, dining facilities, dedicated kitchens where fresh food is plated, and outdoor terraces. Laguna Honda wholeheartedly embraces its site and the designers took great care to activate the outdoor spaces—the facility opens up to a valley complete with gardens, walking paths, a www.contractdesign.com contract october 2010 61 http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - October 2010

Contract - October 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry
Resources
Focus: What's Next
Focus: A New Conversation
Materials: Cork and Circumstances
Green: Net Zero
Practice: The Office That Never Closes
Splashy and Sustainable
The Art of Healthcare Design
Best Foot Forward
Harmonious and Healthy
Of Sea and Stone
Live Long and Prosper
Trends: From Illness Care to Wellness Care
Process: On the Front Line
Designers Rate
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - October 2010