DOORWAYS’ Campus Now Complete With Housing, Retail Pharmacy
Date Posted: November 21, 2024
Posted In: Projects,
Trivers, an architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm based in St. Louis, partnered with DOORWAYS, an interfaith non-profit organization that provides housing and supportive services for those battling homelessness or unstable housing, poverty and poor health from HIV, to complete its Jefferson Avenue Campus located in North St. Louis with a new permanent housing building and a retail pharmacy.
Elliott Place—a new, 39-unit, 31,000-square-foot permanent housing building for low-income residents living with HIV—complements the 50 Allen House apartments that are already being used as emergency housing on DOORWAYS’ campus. Elliott Place completes DOORWAYS’ plan for 89 new one- and two-bedroom apartments as part of the effort to help individuals attain improved health and quality of life while also reducing homelessness and the spread of HIV in St. Louis.
“Elliott Place offers an important steppingstone for people who no longer require emergency housing but still need access to the services and resources that DOORWAYS provides,” said Neil Chace, AIA, associate principal and senior project manager at Trivers. “Elliott Place empowers people to move onto a more stable and independent living situation while continuing to receive vital support.”
The new BOCA Pharmacy Group retail pharmacy, strategically positioned in a pharmacy desert, will fill a significant void in pharmaceutical services in and around the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood. Open Monday through Friday, it will serve as an accessible health hub where DOORWAYS clients and community members alike may easily receive guidance on medication management and other health-related issues.
Trivers also designed a canopy for the campus’ main entrance featuring translucent blue and green panels that will filter in sunlight. In addition to providing an aesthetically pleasing, well-lit transition space, it adds an appealing pop of color to the campus.
Elliott Place, BOCA Pharmacy and the entry canopy were all designed to complement the campus buildings that were completed in 2022, including the 45,000-square-foot Allen House and a 16,000-square-foot building that offers client services and programming facilities, administrative spaces and offices, a community room, a volunteer center and a board room.
“All the campus’ spaces were designed to be clean, modern and calming with lots of natural light,” Chace said. “However, Elliott Place and BOCA Pharmacy also have unique features that enhance the experiences of the people living and working in them. For instance, the Elliott Place apartments have walk-in closets and are not fully furnished, enabling residents to make the spaces their own. The pharmacy incorporates BOCA’s brand identity while complementing DOORWAYS’ overall aesthetic.”
Now complete, the new, three-acre, $40-million campus represents one of the largest investments the North St. Louis community has seen in decades. To celebrate the opening of Elliott Place and BOCA Pharmacy, DOORWAYS hosted ribbon cutting ceremonies on Thursday, November 14 at 11:45 a.m.
“The Trivers team listened to us, and they delivered,” said DOORWAYS President and CEO Opal M. Jones. “We communicated that we wanted a modern, leading-edge facility, but we also wanted it to be a warm and welcoming space for our clients, our team members and the community. They exceeded expectations by creating a campus that is state-of-the-art and feels like home.”
Trivers, an architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm, was founded in 1975 on values that still characterize it today: creating architecture of lasting positive consequence. By establishing a reputation for thoughtful design that responds to context, Trivers’ early focus on historic renovation and adaptive reuse grew to include ground-up construction. Based in St. Louis, Trivers works with a range of clients across the country providing expertise in civic, education, hospitality, housing and workplace architecture.
Founded in 1988, DOORWAYS is dedicated to improving health and life outcomes of people affected by HIV. The agency was initially established in the 1980s to provide hospice care for people dying from AIDS. As HIV became treatable, and the face of HIV shifted to those battling poverty and homelessness, the agency changed its focus to rebuilding lives for the living. More recently, facing growing client needs and a changing landscape, DOORWAYS opened its new Jefferson Avenue Campus in 2022 to facilitate access and reduce barriers to resources by co-locating housing with extensive onsite empowerment services: behavioral health counseling, career and employment assistance, provisions pantry, retail pharmacy (opening fall 2024), self-development learning sessions, and 1:1 care coordination. This mix of resources feeds the development of the environments that provide clients with the stability to effectively manage their HIV treatment plan and achieve viral suppression. Undetectable status improves quality of life and health outcomes for the individual. It also stops the spread of HIV—opening the door to the end of this community health crisis for future generations.