As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child”. This phrase rings especially true for single-parents. While parenthood can be one of the most rewarding aspects of one’s life, it can also be the most challenging. This project seeks to create the “village” through the adaptive reuse of an abandoned 300,000 square foot historic hospital into a mixed-income housing development for single, low-income parents. The development will come with built-in supports that supply parents and families with all of the tools needed to secure a brighter more stable future. When life deals you cards that too often seem to remove you from the “village”, this project seeks to bridge that divide so that the groundwork is laid for current and future generations.
Puente, meaning ‘bridge’ in Spanish, was chosen as an implication of how this project would bridge the gap in more ways than one: income, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and class. The 10-story tall historic St. Joseph’s hospital will have all elements rolled into one. The two bottom floors will contain all of the public elements: a supermarket, 24-hour healthcare facility, adult education classrooms, as well as early childhood and after-school programming for community use. As the floors move upward, the functions become increasingly more private and residential with 110 mixed-income family units. A key design element is the inclusion of alternative education models and revenue streams for skill development among residents. Utilizing the interconnected rooftops to supply a green economy, a renovated chapel as an events center, as well as publicly accessible businesses on the ground floors, would not only help to subsidize this housing program but would ensure its longevity by providing an excellent training ground for its users. This final project was assembled as a schematic design proposal for the West Elmwood Housing coalition and was presented to its board as a design finalist
To review the final presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15qmnxLIoIJ-OGAIySoneF8Fp-uFmKZgx6ciP6Tg6j7I/edit?usp=sharing
