Case Study: Bartizan Group Architects & Hogar de Ninos Que Quieren Sonreir

The Puerto Rico Chapter of the American Cancer Society needed to expand, remodel, and upgrade its hospice in San Juan. The facility accommodates children who are victims of cancer and need to stay near the city’s hospitals while undergoing treatment. Bartizan Group Architects & Project Managers worked in combination with architect Brigida Hogan to redesign the building, adding playrooms, kitchens, meeting and game rooms, a rooftop terrace, as well as a courtyard, laundry, administrative offices and a caretaker’s apartment. The remodeled building was designed to make the space more comfortable for the visiting children and their families. Architectural elements bring the tropical weather indoors via open breezeways on the courtyard as well as clearstories for natural light and cross ventilation. A new colorful façade enlivens the facility’s street presence.

Design

The hospice originally inhabited a three-story apartment building in downtown San Juan that was crowded and not fully accessible. The old building could accommodate one child and one family member in each of its 12 rooms, and included living quarters for a full-time manager. Each floor had two bathrooms, a kitchen, and laundry facilities. The hospice committee wanted to remodel the facilities to increase capacity and provide more accessibility and green areas.

The existing building was analyzed by Vargas, who considered the unique needs of the children, including their sensitivity to light, need for recreation, as well as the needs of their accompanying family members for privacy, communal spaces, and housekeeping. Administrative areas and a manager’s living quarters were moved to an adjacent two-story house in order to enlarge the kitchen and laundry facilities and provide a clearer separation of staff and patient
spaces.

The main challenges of the project were that its tight urban lot of only 1,900 square feet and the need to include an elevator for accessibility left very little room for gardens or amenities. The team focused on connecting the two buildings with wide verandas, providing space for meeting areas and playrooms as well as circulation between the first two floors of each building. The view of the garden from the verandas and living areas made the courtyard space seem more expansive. In addition to designing and overseeing the renovation, the design team provided drawings, renderings, and construction photographs documenting the progress for the organization’s fundraising efforts.

Impact/Analysis

The renovation of the hospice helped decongest the patients’ areas, provide more pleasant, cheerful, and healthy facilities for children and their families, and improve staff conditions. Areas once dedicated to administrative uses were redesigned for greater comfort and social engagement. Bathrooms were enlarged and refinished, as were the kitchen and laundry facilities. Small TV rooms were provided for families with full height windows that opened to the verandas, with views to the garden beyond.

While the children’s rooms were enclosed and darkened to accommodate their special needs during chemotherapy recovery, the views of the garden, the natural daylight in the living rooms, the cross ventilation, and rooftop play area “brightened those children’s’ lives and fed their hopes,” says Vargas. The enlarged kitchen and laundry area, with its central square table as a meeting point gave relatives and supporters areas in which to exchange ideas, fueling a sense of solidarity when, “faced with their children’s dismal medical situations,” they needed it most.

The committee had voiced the facility’s need to attract a full-time resident manager and the design team responded by providing an ample, fully furnished and attractive apartment, directly linked to the second floor veranda. The manager could reach any of the hospice’s facilities on short notice while maintaining private quarters, assisting in retention of this important staff member.

About Bartizan Group Architects & Project Managers

For more than a decade, Bartizan Group Architects & Project Managers, PSC has designed institutional, commercial, office, and hospitality work in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in addition to being a certified 8(a) firm serving the Federal Government.

Aidiliza Levis, a childhood cancer survivor and President of Hogar de Niños Que Quieren Sonreir brought this project to the firm by contacting Benjamin Vargas’s former firm partner who also faced cancer as a child. Upon his partner’s departure from the firm to public service at the State Planning Board, Vargas honored his firm’s commitment, continuing and completing this pro bono project.

“The biggest lesson learned was that there was no architectural gesture too small to go unnoticed by the children and parents housed at the facility.”

Click here to learn more about Bartizan Group Architects & Project Managers, PSC.

About Hogar de ninos que quieren sonreir

Hogar de Niños Que Quieren Sonreir is a facility specifically designed to provide accommodations for children undergoing cancer treatment in San Juan. The American Cancer Society offers a furnished room free of charge for the children and their parents for the duration of their treatment.

Visit www.ayudameasonreir.org for more information about Hogar de Niños Que Quieren Sonreir.