By
Emily Severson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Building designed with wellness and natural peace in mind
Designed to promote wellness, Campus Health Service and the Disability Resource Center will move under the same roof at the Highland Commons Area within the next few years.
Staff members agreed on a design that focuses on wellness and was farther away from an institutional building. Campus Health Service staff, Disability Resource Center staff, the project architects and neighbors to the new facility were consulted.
The inclusion of a healing or meditative garden will be one of the more progressive features the facility will offer.
"We have in mind a place where people can be outside in nature and be more focused on wellness," said Kevin Barber, the job captain at Swaim Associates Ltd. for the Highland area project. "We want to integrate the inside and outside worlds."
Campus Health Service and Disability Resource Center staff met with architects at Swaim Associates Ltd. and recommended that they change the mode of delivering health care to a place where students can learn how to live better, Barber said.
"We want the new facility to be more welcoming and inviting so that students feel comfortable receiving care," said Kris Kreutz, associate director for administration at Campus Health Services.
Staying away from an institutional look for the building is a priority, and so is respecting the neighborhood and not making an offensive faŤade, Barber said.
"We want to stay away from a building that looks like a rehabilitation center, because a lot of our focus is on preventive measures," said Dave Herr-Cardillo, a senior coordinator of adaptive athletics programs at the Disability Resource Center.
Keeping students happy and providing a wellness environment will encourage healthy surroundings on campus, Herr-Cardillo said.
According to the architects assigned to the project, the conceptual design plans are being finished and the schematic design plans are close to starting. The project is slated for completion in Spring 2003.
The new building will be about 80,000 to 89,000 square feet and three stories high, Barber said.
Health Promotions, the Disability Resource Center and Campus Health Services will all be included in the facility, Kreutz said. It is an advantage to both Campus Health Service and the Disability Resource Center that all the services they provide will be in the same building.
The Disability Resource Center now has four separate locations that provide services to students. The building will have more exam rooms for campus health so that they can provide faster service for students, Kreutz said.
It is a little more difficult for students to access Campus Health Service now. Once the new facility is built, they will be closer to the residence halls and adjacent to the new 1700-space parking lot, which will make easier accessibility for students, Kreutz said.
"The central location is a plus, because for some of our students, mobility can be a problem," Herr-Cardillo said.
The facility will probably have a single name and might be called Highland Commons, Kreutz said. He added that the two primary resources that the new facility will have are better accessibility and visibility.
"Being catty-corner from the recreation center will give students passing by the opportunity to see our facility, and maybe this will cause more students to come see us," Kreutz said.
Swaim Associates Ltd. also developed the master plan for the entire Highland District Area. They also designed the current Campus Health Service building, two additions to the Steward Observatory and various lab projects around campus.
