Genovese Family Life Center
Spacesmith | United States | SEE WEBSITE
Headquartered in New York, SCO Family of Services is one of the largest human services providers in the metropolitan area, providing vital services and support to children, families, adults and the community for more than 125 years. The agency provides access to a continuum of care that improves outcomes for people facing significant life challenges, focusing on education, housing, juvenile justice services, support for people with developmental disabilities, and well-being. community.
SCO’s Genovese Family Life Center is the nerve center of its programming in Queens. With a mixed staff of administrators, caseworkers, legal counsel, educators, and medical and mental health professionals, SCO does incredible work to keep New York’s families and social fabric strong.
Many of the children and families served by SCO have been exposed to traumatic experiences that take a high emotional toll on them and the staff who work with them. Spacesmith renovated the new 30,000-square-foot Genovese Family Life Center using trauma-informed design principles to help SCO staff and clients navigate the difficult healing process.
Spacesmith’s work on this project began with the transformation of an underused basement into the Professional Development Center, a continuing education center for staff and families interested in becoming foster parents. From a maze of small makeshift rooms and dark hallways, the space became an efficient training center with flexible, interconnected rooms that host video conferences, classes and events. The design counteracts the problems of the basement’s low ceilings and lack of natural light by bringing in natural elements: wood grains, textured stone, saturated colors and tropical prints.
The success of this initial project led to a renovation of the entire building to create the robust spaces the SCO needs to support its work. At the building’s secure entrance, a comfortable and welcoming reception area leads to the drop-in program’s medical clinic, which features examination rooms, nurse and doctor consultations, and a phlebotomy laboratory. It includes its own waiting room and private bathroom to give clients the privacy they need to prepare for a doctor’s visit or take supervised drug tests. The first floor also houses the foster family visiting room, a large and welcoming area with a recreation room atmosphere surrounded by a series of semi-enclosed, colorful and child-friendly spaces, where biological parents can have supervised visits with their children.
The upper levels feature a welcoming reception area and additional public-facing mental health counseling rooms, as well as administrative areas for staff: open work areas, private offices, call rooms, and rooms specifically designed for supervisor meetings. and personal.
Throughout the building, the spatial layout, acoustic design and material palette apply traumainformed design principles and focus on creating a relaxing and safe space, aesthetically pleasing but not overwhelming or complicated. Cool colors that have a calming effect and inspiring, uplifting accessories and finishes are found throughout, as well as biophilic-themed wall prints that connect customers with nature and provide a positive distraction (they have been found to reduce the stress and pain and improve mood). Studies show that curvilinear shapes indoors provoke more pleasant emotions (relaxation, peace and calm) than rectilinear ones. At Genovese, all 90-degree corners of the space are curved, with no sharp edges that could cause injury. Heavy furniture with rounded edges helps create a safe environment; reception chairs with high backs offer a comfortable feel; dimmable lighting in mental health counseling rooms allows personal preferences to be adjusted to help reduce stress levels; and full-height acoustic walls with sound-absorbing fabric coverings provide acoustic privacy.
The building, energy efficient and designed with the latest technology in heating, cooling and ventilation systems, is an uplifting and thoughtfully designed space that signals to visitors that the SCO is a place where they will be cared for. The Genovese Family Life Center is part of SCO’s continued positive impact on the lives of local children, families and the community.
Project Data
Firm: Spacesmith
Area: 26,282 sf
Year: 2022
Location: New York City, NY, United States
Lighting: Studio Atomic
Contractor: DB Collaborative
Furniture: Henrocksen
Fotografías: Eric Laignel
