Betsy Schwefler 2024
Community and Mental Wellbeing
Spring 2024
Northeastern University
Urban Stitching Fall 2022
Northeastern University
Mobile Health Van Spring 2024
SCOUT Labs
Brooke House
Spring 2023
MASS Design Group
Garrett’s Space
Spring 2023
MASS Design Group
Newport Development
Spring 2022
STUDIOS Architecture
Street Sketches 2019-2023
Year 5, Northeastern University, Prof Paxton Sheldahl, project partner Julia Young.
The concept of my final Comprehensive Studio was adaptive reuse. My partner and I were given an existing building called Foxhall, located in Upham’s Corner in Boston. We had the opportunity to convert this existing site into a program of our choosing.
Project thesis: For our project, we are using the existing structure of Fox Hall and a new addition to facilitate community activity, promote physical, mental and social wellbeing, and depathologize mental health treatment. By designing a mental health facility adjacent to a clubhouse and community center, we are challenging the traditional isolating structure of mental health care.
While developing our main form and concept, my partner and I used air dry clay to create a series of iterative models that highlight different issues we wanted to address with our design. The concept highlighted in the model above was the intersection of our two programs. We knew that we did not want to have a hard, isolating, line drawn between those receiving mental health treatment and the community, which is what the current mental health care system does.
For our design, we are preserving the structural bearing walls of Fox Hall and reconfiguring its interior to support a clubhouse and community center. We are also adding a 25,000 sqft addition to the back of the existing building that will serve as a mental health facility.
Practically, utilizing as much of the existing structure as possible helps to lower the embodied carbon of our design. The built environment is the largest contributing factor to carbon emissions, and new construction is inherently wasteful, especially when demolishing and rebuilding in a city. Upgrades to the existing building’s thermal envelope will also help minimize our design’s impact on the environment by improving building performance and reducing operational emissions.
The three main programs we are designing for are a mental health facility, a clubhouse, and a community center. Although these programs are separate, the adjacencies between them aim to create a narrative of personal growth, wellness, and sense of community.
In our design, there are key transitional moments within and between programs. Within the mental health facility, there is a transition between treatment and living. Between the clubhouse and the community center, there is a shared circulation space that filters people between the two programs.
These transitional read as glass block rectangular prisms. This strategy not only creates a connection between materiality and program, but it also creates a formal dialogue between the existing and new structures.
In order to challenge the current separation between the inpatient mental health facility and the community center we added a third program, the clubhouse. Clubhouses act as a home base for those living in the community that have spent time in mental health facilities. They Members are able to build relationships, feel a sense of belonging, and have an easier transition back into society. These three strategies are the basis for our design decisions throughout the project.
Theoretically, we believe that respecting the identity of a place is not synonymous with complete preservation. To make the best use of an existing structure, it needs to be able to adapt to accommodate modern programming. A building can expand and contract throughout its lifetime while still maintaining a connection to its heritage.
The mental health facility may be the starting point for individuals struggling with severe mental health disorders. People can stay here for multiple days in order to get the treatment they need to get back on their feet. The clubhouse is a place where people with mental health disorders can gather and access services to help with things like housing, finance, employment. By being directly adjacent to the mental health facility, the idea is that those receiving treatment have direct access to another support system when they are discharged. The community center is open to the public and is meant to be a place where community members can meet and participate in wellness-oriented activities like cooking and gardening. Eventually, clubhouse members may outgrow their membership and become comfortable living life without any extra support-- at this point they can still come back and access any of the spaces in the community center.
The topography of our site played a large role in our design. From the street to the back of the existing parking lot there is a +16’ grade change. The community center and clubhouse share a main entry which invites the public into a café where anyone can receive walk-up mental health counseling. A green wall invites visitors and clubhouse members up a main central stair. The mental health facility has a separate entrance on the ground floor of the existing building. The transition into the facility happens while moving up a floor, where one is welcomed by a luscious green courtyard.
Maintain historical facade
Green wall invites the public up
This floor of the community center contains a teaching kitchen for the community and the entry into the clubhouse flexible office space, which is accessed through a transition point highlighted by glass block.
This is the main floor of the mental health facility. One enters with an immediate view of the courtyard and a welcoming walkway with therapy entrances removed from the main circulation. All the treatment areas are grouped in this bar, separate from where guests spend their free time.
The transition from treatment to living is highlighted with glass block. The massing allows for southern light to enter the interior courtyard, which provides walking loops and access to nature.
This is the top floor of the community center, which is home to a community garden. We placed sawtooth skylights in between the existing beams to allow light into the space. The top floor of the clubhouse is home to common spaces and an outdoor terrace, providing a visual connection between those staying in the mental health facility and those returning to the clubhouse. This is a typical residential floor of the facility. The bedrooms are in a single loaded sawtooth form, giving each room equal southern exposure. Each floor has small common areas to allow for a variety of social levels.
The goal of this project was to create an urban design plan for a portion of Mission Hill, Boston. The site currently consists of parking lots, existing housing, two historic buildings, the orange line, and part of the Southwest Corridor. My proposal focused on stitching together the existing urban fabric, using different forms of housing and green space to connect the small scale residential projects abutting the top of the site to the large scale community assets at the bottom. I used the form and materiality of the existing housing projects, and the shape of the windows in the historic buildings on the site to design the new housing in the proposal. My main goal in this project was to prioritize the local residents and design an accessible neighborhood that promotes health.
Northeastern University donated an old bus that was used to provide vaccinations during COVID to the Knox Clinic, a non-profit health organization that focuses on providing health care to those living in remote areas in Maine. Working with Scout Labs and advisors from the Knox Clinic, I led the design of converting this bus into a mobile health van. We designed three different levels of intervention for the van, a low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost renovation. We hosted design workshops and went to Knox County to see the current van and meet with the people that will be using it in person. The Knox Clinic used the graphics I created to secure a grant to provide funding for this future renovation. The full scale intervention is shown in the diagram to the right.
1. Modular storage
Flexible Waiting Room
1. Soundproof panels
2. Wall planters
3. Porthole windows
4. Desk
5. Comfortable seating
6. Modular storage
5.
The following pages document some of the work I did while at MASS Design Group from January to August of 2023. MASS is a design collective with the mission to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. The projects I worked on had experienced and talented teams designing and leading me throughout the process.
Building an exhibit about the making of The Embrace
Design team: Jonathan Evans, Francisco Colom, Lauren Harness, Rylee Smith, Megan Altendorf, Sarah Payton
A project I worked on throughout my time at MASS, is the Brooke House development. This project is located in Mattapan, Boston, and is 100% affordable housing for seniors. The ground floor contains a health clinic and market for the local community to use.
I designed and modeled iterations of the facade. An important feature of this project is that every floor has access to the outdoors. This celebration of nature is continued with the green gradient. I used Illustrator to create a JPEG of the panel patterns and Revit to model the battens and assign materials. I then used JPEG mapping in Lumion to create renders that showcase what the building would look like.
Design team: Dave Saladik, John Maher, Ana Fernandez, Symphorien Gasana
The main project that I worked on throughout my time at MASS was a youth mental health retreat called Garrett’s Space, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I worked on this project from initial concept design through the start of DD. The site is to be used by young adults experiencing extreme depression and anxiety. The site is a 75 acre property that allows for hiking trails, kayaking, and outdoor activities. We designed the main building and creativity studio which work with an existing house to enclose a green community space.
Existing House
Bedroom (1-2)
Social Spine
This project had a clear goal of wanting to feel like a warm, welcoming home. I modeled, added entourage, and rendered views of the interior dining and living spaces.
This site will be the first time Garrett’s Space will provide in-person treatment. This meant that while we were figuring out the design of the building, the organization was also figuring out how they were going to operate. We had remote work-shopping sessions on miro to help the team figure out the type of care they will be providing and allow us to design a space that aligns with their goals.
Completely controlled environment
Discrete, safe design decisions
Familiar, normal environment
3 to 4 beds per room. Guests share a bathroom, are never completely isolated behind a closed door for long periods of time
Guests share rooms but have dividers marking their own area. Giving them privacy and ownership but knowing someone else is close by.
Guests have private rooms that are connected to a shared common space and bathroom. Option to be isolated in a personal space or be around peers
Guests have private rooms and bathrooms, giving them the option to be completely isolated in their own private space.
I worked on the design of the pods. It was important that each guest has a private space to reflect and recharge. These spaces are warm, peaceful, allow for individuality, and are connected with nature. I modeled the pods in Revit and rendered them using Lumion.
1. Display personal belongings
2. Desk for writing and reflection
3. Cozy reading nook
4. Integrated storage & closet space
5. Space to display art
6. Waking to the view
7. Natural materials
Concept Design | Conceptual Approach
Accessible Bathroom
Bathroom
Bedroom
Laundry
Living Room
Double Bedroom
Accessible Screened-in Balcony
Individual Room Respite, Reflect, Recharge
Display personal belongings
Desk for writing and reflection
Cozy reading nook
Integrated storage & closet space
Space to display art
Waking to the view
Natural materials throughout
Design team: David Burns, Graham Clegg, Dave Frankecht, Mary Delaurentis, Merve Poyraz, Josh Oakley, Cydney Douglas
This project is for two residential towers that sit atop mixed-use podiums in South Downtown Atlanta. The podiums are integrated with the existing buildings that are historic to the site. Broad Street, which runs between the buildings, will become pedestrian-only and will be home to outdoor markets and festivals.
This project is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but is being designed in New York. This meant an in-depth site analysis was extremely important. I was able to help with this in the initial stages of the project by photoshopping street elevations of the existing facades, doing an analysis of the local street art and public spaces, and laser cutting massing and facade models. I made the first pass at every unique unit and then met with experienced architects to work through many iterations. Throughout this, I learned about maximizing space, code requirements, and the rules of thumb for design processing apartments. I also created and maintained an organized InDesign file cataloging the many different unit layouts in both buildings.
I sketched a series of concepts for the design of the podium and screening for the parking garage. After work-shopping, I modeled and rendered the podium facade using Revit and Enscape. I also created a series of diagrams in Illustrator highlighting the main design drivers of the podium.
Sketch highlighting art and materiality
Elevation of main entry
Pencil drawings from time in Spain and France.
Thank You
schwefler.e@northeastern.edu
