Located at the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Beech Street in San Diego, the Wellness Center building is a renovated 17,460-square-feet auto dealership building originally built in 1927. Smith Consulting Architects, based in Carmel Valley, led the $2.4 million remodeling project. The building remodel involved a seismic retrofit of a 4,500-square-feet second floor addition, and complete retrofit of the building exterior. The project also involved design and installation of mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems.
The new Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center was designed to provide a state-of-the-art, one-stop health and wellness hub for low-income seniors. The first floor of the new facility features a spacious main lobby with ample seating; a ‘living room’ area for socialisation and reading; an activity room for cards, chess and other board games; and an ‘enrichment center’ for lectures, art and exercise classes, demonstrations, job and volunteer training, and other group activities. A Cyber Cafe is featured to enable seniors to learn and develop computer skills. The kitchen and dining room area of the new facility is nearly double the size of the Senior Community Centers’ former facility.
The second floor of the facility houses the Center for Healthy Aging, where clinical staff and collaborative partners provide a full range of health assessments, interventions, case management, and activities designed to promote health. The centre has also partnered with major San Diego healthcare, social service, legal and educational organisations.
The facility incorporates a contemporary design. It features an abundance of natural light and a palette of warm, inviting colours, creating a safe, comfortable environment for seniors.
The building is sustainably designed with several green practices include reuse of the existing building, and recycling demolition waste to keep materials out of landfills. The building shell includes urethane spray foam roof insulation, PPG insulated glass at all exterior windows, and 22 Solatube and Sun Optic daylighting skylights that infiltrate the interior space with natural light. High efficiency T-8 lighting with motion- and light-sensors was employed to further reduce energy consumption by 27%. High efficiency mechanical units with economizers circulate outside air.
An energy management system is incorporated to monitor the building’s energy consumption. According to the architects, the building uses approximately 25% less energy than current California energy code requirements. Using ultra-low-flow plumbing fixtures and faucets, the Center also uses 51% less water, compared to a typical building of this type.
The building employed low-VOC finish materials to provide a clean healthy environment. The materials were also selected based on their high degree of recycled content, with the carpet containing almost 35% recycled material and the ceiling tiles 40%. Built-in recycling bins enable the Center to recycle paper, glass, metal, cardboard and plastics.
The design and construction of the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center was possible through a lead donation of $3 million from the Gary and Mary West Foundation. Senior Community Centers, in partnership with HomeAid San Diego, is the developer for the project while Ledcor Construction, Inc. served as the general contractor.
HomeAid San Diego is the local chapter of HomeAid America, a national organisation that is the largest builder of transitional housing for the temporarily homeless in the US.
