Colorado-based Fransen Pittman General Contractors and MOA Architecture recently marked the completion of the Amy Davis Hospice Support Center in the Lowry neighborhood of Denver. The new facility is an addition to The Denver Hospice’s Inpatient Care Center at Lowry, a project also designed by MOA and one of the firm’s most celebrated projects. The Denver Hospice is the region’s largest nonprofit provider of hospice and palliative care.
The new facility houses administrative office space for approximately 100 employees of The Denver Hospice as well as Care Synergy, the hospice’s parent organization that provides support to hospice and palliative care providers across the Front Range. The new facility also includes a grief center, which offers bereavement therapy to patients’ families. The relocation of administrative and therapy services—which were previously located in Glendale—to the same site as the Inpatient Care Center, is a welcome, new convenience for patients and their families. Employees can enhance and improve their mission of providing personalized, compassionate care for both their patients and patients’ families on the same site.
The design of the office spaces recognizes the incredible commitment of those working in hospice care. The men and women who see patients through the end of their lives do a monumental service to the patients and their families. With this comes natural stress and fatigue, an integral aspect of their work experience that the new building accommodates. “In conversation with user groups of employees, we quickly understood how important it was for them to have a space where they could meaningfully retreat from the emotional burden of the work,” says Kasia Bulkowski, MOA’s project manager. “The breakroom we designed ended up being an ‘oasis,’ and included an outdoor space for them to get fresh air.”
Bereavement therapy for family members and loved ones is a key service offered by The Denver Hospice. The new grief center offers space for sensory and processing activities for both children and adults, including arts and crafts and expressive music activities. The spaces within the support center are flexible, allowing for both group and individual therapy, each intentionally designed to feel like a ”home away from home,” resulting in a cozy and welcoming environment.
Image courtesy of MOA
