THE VILLAGE WELLNESS CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO, CA --- 2021-PRESENT --- PYATOK ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN
An inter-tribal home for San Francisco's urban American Indian community.
At the heart of the American Indian Cultural District, The Village will house a complex multi-use program for the Friendship House Association, the Native American Health Center, and the American Indian Cultural Center. The client group here envisions a physical, cultural, and spiritual nexus that facilitates community connection and provides essential services by and for urban American Indians, with goals of ensuring the wellbeing of this community and bringing visibility to Indigenous Peoples.
The compact, vertical building will embrace and express shared indigenous values, prioritizing resilience, sustainability, and longevity. An exterior of organic forms will be clad in terracotta “baguettes” that provide a textural facade and sun-shading. The mass timber structure enables a natural expressiveness while allowing for widely varying program uses throughout. The lower floors will accommodate community-based services like housing navigation, benefits counseling, workforce development, and education, as well as provide dedicated space for a citywide American Indian youth and teens program. A medical and dental clinic operated by the Native American Health Center will occupy two floors. Post-treatment transitional housing is provided for those seeking a professional path in social work. A Women’s Lodge will serve women with young children who need substance use treatment and women that are victims of sex trafficking. On the rooftop, a healing garden, productive farm, and talking circle will reconnect visitors and residents to reclaimed earth and sky.
Team collaboration:
PYATOK: Peter Waller, Adrianne Steichen, Janey Madamba, Ray Reedy, Sara Ghafar Samar
Client: Friendship House Association of American Indians
Consultants: Einwiller Kuehl, DCI, PAE, Sage, Stok, Top Leaf
