Engan Associates
spaces/learn
“The objective of the living units is to facilitate late evening, night, and earlymorning excursions into the natural environment.” —Richard Engan, Founder & Principal
of residents and features residential detailing. The home will also include a unit for rehab patients recovering from injury or surgery, not only allowing the patients to stay close to home, but also shifting the image of the nursing home to that of a transitional place from which they will return home.
Photos: Barbara Marks, Engan Associates
Project Turnabout is a recovery center with interiors focusing on sustainable scale, natural light, and indoor air quality. The facility is located on a unique site in the Minnesota River Valley that had not been developed for years due to the expense of blasting the granite bedrock to install utilities and foundation. But Engan Associates’ design moves away from the need to blast through the rock and instead builds organically around it, allowing one of the best clusters of cactus (rare in Minnesota) to be salvaged. The native prairie was also restored, resulting in an environment that provides a “unique, memorable image for a recovery center,” Engan says. The firm’s prediction is that in the future, as clients request more and more green features, design professionals will be required to distinguish between fact and fiction. “Sustainability 30 years ago was spoken of largely in terms of energy,” Engan says. “Today, the needs of users are primary.” gb&d
gbdmagazine.com
MARCH 2011 111