The Village SF Wellness Center

Located in the first American Indian Cultural District of its size ever designated in the United States, the Village SF Wellness Center will be a 46,000 SF six-floor building serving as a cultural and social service hub for Indigenous people. Programming includes medical, dental, and behavioral health services, workforce development, interim supportive housing, a youth technology center, and rooftop farm. Sponsored by Friendship House, the oldest and largest Native-led organization serving American Indians in San Francisco, the Wellness Center is part of a Native community-led initiative that seeks to transform environmental, social, and economic injustice into green infrastructure development, cultural visibility, and community-wide prosperity.

At a Glance

Client:PYATOK architecture + design

Location:San Francisco, CA (Ramaytush Ohlone territory)

Industry:Multifamily

Size:46,400 SF

Project Team:Friendship House Association of American Indians (Owner)Equity Community Builders (General Contractor)PYATOK architecture + design (Architect)

Certifications:LEED Platinum (targeting)

Solutions:

LBC Core & Materials Petal Consulting
LEED Fundamental & Enhanced Commissioning
LEED & LBC Energy Modeling
Life Cycle Carbon & Materials Analysis

The Challenge

The Wellness Center is the vision of an inter-tribal community coalition of Native organizations and groups that serve San Francisco’s Indigenous population, creating a physical, service, cultural, and spiritual nexus for urban American Indians that will ensure their well-being seven generations from now. A place like the Village does not exist in any other urban area — a physical building where urban American Indians can gather to connect with each other and their indigeneity and receive critical essential services in a culturally sensitive environment. The Village SF Wellness Center is a blueprint for American Indian placemaking in San Francisco and urban areas across the nation, with collaboration, community, and sustainability at its core.

Stok worked with the Native ownership group to thoughtfully align the project’s sustainability goals with the owner’s vision set by long-standing, immutable Native American values, resulting in unique cultural-based sustainability imperatives. With no federal funding available to American Indians living in urban areas, the project team has navigated significant budget constraints in working toward the owner’s goals. Specifically, Stok:

Guided discussions with the owner around the project’s vision to help align the Native-led vision with sustainability imperatives, then determine sustainability certification pursuit goals
Provided LBC Core and Materials Petal consulting
Performed LEED and LBC Energy Modeling
Conducted a full life cycle carbon and materials analysis to determine healthy and sustainable material options
Will provide LEED Fundamental and Enhanced Commissioning and Building Envelope Commissioning (BECx) for the building
Will provide Building Performance Monitoring via M&V and Monitoring-Based Commissioning (MBCx)

Janey Madamba

Senior Associate, PYATOK architecture + design

“I highly recommend working with the Stok team. Stok brings their vast expertise and diverse thought leaders to the project team. Over almost a year of discussion, research, and input, Stok guided our team in identifying the “right fit“ sustainability approach that fulfilled our client’s cultural values as well as the project’s budget and city requirements. Working with Stok has not only been a fun experience, but they demonstrate tremendous agility to filter and communicate directly, simply, and succinctly in any situation from internal team communication to external presentations, meetings with clients, and interviews with contractors. They effortlessly organize our project’s sustainability needs and goals and supersede the requirements of our client. Their skills are incredible, and I would bring them onto every project if I could.”

The Solution

SUSTAINABILITY BEYOND CERTIFICATION

Aligning the project’s Native-led vision with sustainability initiatives was an essential part of Stok’s role. Stok worked closely with Friendship House to ensure the owner’s vision was captured in sustainable design imperatives from existing building frameworks, with the goal of creating a space that serves a deep need for healing and connection within the American Indian community, with hopes to be an example for other similar projects.

DEEP HEALING AS A PRIORITY

To support the Village SF Wellness Center’s mission of deep healing, Stok is ensuring every interior surface material is healthy to the touch and to the air. Specifically, all common areas will contain natural materials that create a connection to Indigenous people, and Stok will specify materials aligned to the Red List in spaces used by youth and families to minimize or eliminate material toxicity. This approach ensures materials in high-touch spaces are selected with the most rigor, thus prioritizing healthy material selection for highest positive impact on a limited budget – a significant challenge when aligning to the Red List.

DESIGNED FOR COMMUNITY RESILIENCY

Aligned with the Village SF Wellness Center’s goal to be a refuge for the San Francisco Indian community in times of need, the building will integrate resiliency components encompassing power, water, food, and shelter standpoints. From another angle, the project is committed to delivering strong community outcomes, including local and low-income job creation, as well as providing lasting community services.

FOSTERING CONNECTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Stok helped ensure design strategies were aligned with biophilic design concepts that would meet the owner’s goal to renew connection to the natural environment and natural systems. Through the lens of a Biophilic Design Framework, Stok supported the team’s design of an on-site rooftop agricultural space for growing plants for ceremonial and medicinal uses. This private rooftop space will be used by female residents going through rehabilitation – an example of a design feature that received no LEED points (and in fact replaced what otherwise would’ve been an on-site rooftop photovoltaic array) but fully supports the Native vision for the space.