Environmental Works Community Design Center thanks you for supporting community design for nonprofits in Washington State this year! To brighten your holiday season, we offer these updates on some of our current projects.
Environmental Works news 2016
Country Doctor Community Health Centers and Environmental Works, both founded by grassroots civil rights activists over 45 years ago, shared a home at Fire Station 7 for more than two decades.
Country Doctor has grown to serve tens of thousands of Seattle residents each year, at three facilities, with services ranging from primary care, to HIV support, to prenatal and maternal care, to behavioral health. EW has been honored to provide Country Doctor architectural services at its various facilities since the early 1970s. The 510 19th Avenue Redevelopment Project, with groundbreaking slated for July of 2017, will be our largest-scale collaboration yet. A brand-new four-story building will take the place of a smaller building that Country Doctor has outgrown, the Betty Lee Manor on 19th Avenue East on Capitol Hill, and will house expanded clinic, case management, and administrative space. The new building, designed to LEED Silver standards, will add dental services to Country Doctor’s offerings with an eight-station dental clinic. It will also include expanded facilities for HIV management, WIC, maternity support, and diabetes education. The top two floors will contain eight rental apartments, which will provide ongoing income for Country Doctor’s important community health work.
EW has been partnering with Country Doctor on the Betty Lee Manor Project for two years, securing a successful code revision which was needed for the project. Throughout the planning and design process, EW has listened closely to the needs and concerns of Country Doctor’s constituents, as well as those of its neighbors, to ensure their incorporation into the new building’s design. We will share developments with you over the next several months.
Serving Those Who Serve: Devoe II Veterans Housing
Catholic Community Services of Western Washington approached EW to design new housing specifically for the numerous Thurston County veterans who are homeless and/or have a disability. DeVoe II Veterans Housing represents a new frontier for EW: this is our first project for which veterans will be the primary residents, with every aspect of the facility designed to take veterans’ needs into account.
Devoe II will offer 50 low-income studio apartments, along with common areas and outdoor space, to veterans and other homeless individuals at CCS’s Drexel House campus in Olympia. EW conducted multiple charrettes with veterans, staff, current campus residents, and nonprofits and government staff serving veterans, to develop the designs for the individual apartments and common spaces.
EW’s Director of Architecture Bill Singer notes, “Through the charrette process we learned about several unique needs, due to veterans dealing with PTSD – trauma from war experiences, and from spending time in homelessness.” Veterans indicated that light, air, and ventilation were huge priorities for them. To address these needs, the apartments include as many windows as possible – at least two per unit – as well as ceiling fans. Common areas incorporate very wide corridors and emphasize lines of sight, so that residents will always have views in and out of rooms. Case management rooms, for example, feature views to the hallway as well as to the outdoors.
Outdoor spaces will include a dog run, to accommodate veterans’ service animals; and a loop walking path around the entire campus, including a pedestrian bridge across a central pond, to offer opportunities for exercise and fresh air. New residents will also have access to a garden space, a large covered patio, and a lawn for recreational activities. The street frontage will feature a series of flagpoles for each of the five Armed Services branches.
Construction on Devoe II is expected to be completed by April of 2017.
Support EW’s Community Design Fund!
Please remember Environmental Works when making your end-of-year donations! Your donation supports better facilities for people in need in Washington, and a regional commitment to community design. All donations go directly to providing pre-design services at no cost to nonprofits. With feasibility studies from EW in hand, nonprofits are able to obtain funds from additional funders and move forward with their critical facility work. This support enables them to focus on what they do best: housing the homeless, caring for children, providing community health services, and more.
Thank you for your support!
Nominate a Nonprofit to Be EW’s 2017 GiveBIG Partner!
Each spring, EW requests donations to fund pre-design services to one nonprofit, at no cost to the nonprofit. Past recipients include West Side Baby, Vine Maple Place, the Asia Pacific Cultural Center and The Brighton Campus.
Is there a Washington nonprofit you love, that needs facility improvements in 2017? Nominate them to be our 2017 GiveBIG partner! Nominations welcome by email(contactus@eworks.org) through January 31, 2017.
EW Offers Nonprofit Meeting Space
Grassroots organizing, community collaboration, inclusion, diversity, and respect for the environment were the founding principles of Environmental Works in 1970, and continue to drive our work today. To support these values, EW offers meeting space for nonprofits in our offices. Please check our website for information on reserving our low-cost nonprofit meeting space.