Project Details
This project was selected as a Merit winner in ARCHITECT's 2024 Architecture & Interiors Awards, Interiors: Leisure, Health and Wellness category.
“The project makes good use of limited means to enhance the clinical environment with a warm material palette and impactful detailing.” –Juror Ben Crawford
Developed to provide quality healthcare services for under-served communities, with an emphasis on expectant mothers and their babies, this center occupies a former 1960s office building in northeast D.C. Tapped to convert the existing building for this purpose, Gensler conducted extensive research through staff and community engagement events, discovery workshops with local families who experienced hospital and birth center deliveries, and by listening to personal stories about trusted relationships and how they made all the difference. What the design team learned is that the community desired a center where the care team was truly familiar with them beyond a name with an accompanying medical record and spaces that possessed welcoming qualities and comfort. The designers also learned that community members preferred an aesthetic of softer palettes, pops of color, and complex patterns and thus strove to incorporate these within programming parameters such as exam rooms, staff workspaces, and a large multipurpose space.
Gensler responded with soft, curvaceous, and inviting spaces and individual elements. For instance, in the reception zone one encounters a curvilinear check-in desk; round ottomans, tables, and light fixtures; rounded wall corners; and a palette of neutral tones with pops of soft magenta, peach, and lilac. Taking community feedback pertaining to the birthing suites to heart, the team ensured the rooms were devoid of anything that appeared remotely clinical. Once again, curvilinear elements appear as rounded corners on walls, ceilings, and even at the floor level, while furnishings are more reminiscent of home with pieces such as a rocker, a wooden dresser with a changing table on top, and a luxurious freestanding soaking tub with a floor-mounted filler. Even the bed looks like it’s been plucked from a home, its style that of a modern platform bed with a railed headboard.
