Healthcare Design - April 2023 - 16

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CO FAMILY OF SERVICES provides children and families
throughout New York City and Long Island access to
a continuum of care that includes physical and mental
health, wellness, education, housing, family youth justice
services, and family support. While the organization
operates several locations around Jamaica, Queens, its
Genovese Family Life Center serves as the hub of the organization's
programming in the neighborhood.
However, after years in operation, the center was feeling the constraints
of its aging building. " It was an old maze of offices and corridors and dead
ends, " says Hayden Blades, vice president of facilities and property management
for SCO Family of Services. " We wanted to bring a fresh look to
the space and make it more efficient. "
The goal was to renovate the existing four-story building, which the
organization owned, with modern, flexible client areas and workspaces.
SCO Family of Services aimed to move staff working in other leased spaces
into the renovated location to improve efficiencies as well as reduce real
estate costs. Additionally, the renovation would provide
the opportunity to employ design strategies that support
its clients, many of whom have gone through traumatic
experiences and receive counseling at the center.
" We wanted them to have a space where they felt safe
and comfortable, " Blades says.
Opened in October 2022, the building's first floor
houses most of the public-facing services such as the
foster care program's medical clinic, which includes
a waiting area, two exam rooms, clinician offices, and
phlebotomy lab. On the same floor, the foster care family
visiting room offers a large, inviting area for birth
parents to hold supervised visits with their children. The
upper levels each have public-facing rooms for mental
health counseling as well as redesigned staff workspaces.
In the latter, enclosed offices were replaced with openfloor
layouts and varied settings that support different
MORE ONLINE: For the full article and additional
images of the project, visit hcdmagazine.com/
projects/genovese-center.
ABOVE: In the reception
area, upholstered,
high-back furnishings
with a living room feel
offer a sense of privacy
and protection. BELOW:
The dedicated staff café
on the fourth floor gets
plenty of natural light and
encourages staff to enjoy
meals together.
needs, including shared cubicles arranged along
the perimeter to maximize natural light on the
floors and conference and counseling rooms
housed in the core.
Working with Spacesmith (New York), the
project team utilized principles of traumainformed
design to deliver a setting that promotes
healing. For example, utilizing studies
that show curvilinear forms in interior settings
can make people feel more serene than rectilinear
shapes, the project team designed all
90-degree corners and corridor soffits in soft
curves. Biophilic elements are also employed
throughout, such as nature-themed wallcoverings
in the exam rooms and gender-neutral
bathrooms and woodgrain doors and carpeting
with a stone-like pattern in the reception area.
" The idea is to get away from an institutional
feel to something that's going to make people
feel welcome, relaxed, and calm, " says Ambar
Margarida, principal at Spacesmith.
In the former environment, the center used
institutional furnishings that were bolted to
the floor to address security needs. During the
renovation, Margarida says the project team focused
on addressing safety without impacting
the overall aesthetic. For example, in the reception
area, hard, plastic chairs were replaced with
weighted, high-backed soft furnishings in curvilinear
configurations.
Blade says the bright and airy space has been
well received by staff and clients. " Everyone who
comes in the space is awed by the transformation, "
he says.-Anne DiNardo, executive editor
APRIL 2023
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
ERIC LAIGNEL
http://www.hcdmagazine.com/projects/genovese-center http://www.hcdmagazine.com/projects/genovese-center http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
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