architecture+ has a breadth and depth of expertise in the planning, design, and development of mental health settings that is unparalleled in the United States. architecture+ is a leader in the re-imagination of the psychiatric hospital as a building type; one that confounds the stigma of mental illness and provides examples, lessons, and inspiration for mental health providers and architects throughout the world.
Our design and service-oriented architectural, planning, and interiors firm includes a staff of forty. We have been planning and designing psychiatric facilities for both public and private clients to provide inpatient and outpatient treatment for over thirty-five years and have worked on a broader range of treatment settings than any firm in North America.
We have created over 25,000 mental health beds in 43 states and provinces mental health master planning for multi-hospital and hospital systems, free-standing hospitals, free-standing psychiatric emergency departments/crisis centers, mental health units in general hospitals, outpatient clinics, academic research facilities, substance abuse treatment centers, and facilities for adult and geriatric patients as well as children and adolescents. It is unusual for psychiatric hospitals to gain recognition for excellence in architectural design but architecture+ has achieved multiple awards for our work from the following organizations:
- International Academy of Design
- Boston Society of Architects/American Institute of Architects Healthcare Facilities
- American Institute of Architects, New England
- American Institute of Architects, Portland
- World Architecture News
We excel at planning and designing facilities that provide the highest level of safety and security in a non-institutional campus-like environment. Safety is paramount and is worked into every aspect of a project while being hidden to the greatest extent possible. Our facilities minimize the appearance of a locked facility and emulate the typology of normative residential architecture.
Our projects are recognized for facilitating the treatment by creating a normative and home-like environments. These facilities incorporate the best practices found in psychiatric health care facility environments, which are known to help reduce violence, aggression, and injury to both patients and staff.