Healthcare Design - August 2023 - 44

AWARD OF MERIT
NEW TRADITION
University of California, San Francisco's Nancy Friend
Pritzker Psychiatry Building offers a fresh take on
mental health care, both in programming and design
By Jennifer Kovacs Silvis
THE VISION BEHIND the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),
Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building in San Francisco was to break
the mold and create an entirely new mental health treatment environment.
To do so, it brings together the provider's previously disparate
programming by co-locating clinical, training, and research functions-
including both pediatric and adult care-in one building. Additionally,
the project design was driven by the goal of creating a welcoming, uplifting
space that simultaneously supports safety for both patients and staff
throughout the 173,000-square-foot building completed in April 2022. It
was submitted to the Design Showcase by ZGF (Portland). Here, lead designers
from ZGF, Kimberly Bandy, associate and medical planner and
architect; Justin Brooks, principal and design principal; and Mirjana Munetic,
principal and senior interior designer, share insight on some of the
project's defining features.
Healthcare Design: This project set out to buck traditional design
approaches to mental health care settings. How did that goal inform
initial visioning?
Justin Brooks: Early on, project partners worked with the client to develop
a vision and guiding principles. UCSF sought to integrate physical and mental
health. They wanted to eliminate arbitrary boundaries that have traditionally
isolated psychiatry and the behavioral sciences from other medical
disciplines that also advance brain health and treat brain disorders. At the
same time, UCSF's mission with this project was to normalize the care environment
for behavioral health patients of all ages, advance leading-edge
research and treatment, and increase access to care for the most vulnerable.
44
AU GUST 2023
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
Children and teens
visiting the Nancy
Friend Pritzker Psychiatry
Building
access the facility via
a smaller-scale, more
intimate entry with
the feeling of a frontdoor
stoop.
One of the critical outcomes of the visioning
sessions was to create an innovative outpatient
mental health facility that would welcome a
range of ages and ensure a warm and calming
environment where everyone is treated with
respect and dignity. The facility also needed to
encompass clinical care, education, and dry lab
research under one roof.
The vision provided the framework to identify
guiding principles for the project. These highlighted
breaking down the barriers to improve
the patient and family experience; creating a
healing and therapeutic environment while addressing
safety and security; creating room standardization
and flexibility to support clinical,
education, and research; ensuring intuitive wayfinding
and connections while separating pediatric
and adult patient flows; and integrating
clinical, research, and education services to allow
for collaboration across medical disciplines
to advance treatment and research.
Share the process the design team went
through to ensure the best experience and
operations for both patient populations.
Kimberly Bandy: The most important outcome
was to create an outpatient mental health
facility that would welcome a range of ages and
ensure a calming and respectful environment.
The building's orientation on the sloped site allowed
for two separate entrances, with a firstfloor
adult entrance and a second-story entrance
for children and families.
Providing entries of different scale and demeanor
allows patients' arrival sequence to
BRUCE DAMONTE
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Healthcare Design - August 2023

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