Victory Wellness Center

Victory Wellness Center is PATTERNS’ largest completed project to date and our first comprehensive adaptive-reuse design. Located at the busy intersection of Victory Blvd. and Troost Ave., the project entailed the transformation of a ’60s bowstring truss warehouse into a campus-like medical facility, which expanded its footprint from 17,000 ft² to 42,000 ft² and added courtyards, a new basement, and a partial mezzanine. Preserving the existing wooden structure and integrating new elements, the design is a sustainable approach that maintains three facades and the roof while introducing a new interior-facing facade.

Surrounded by a diverse yet cohesive urban fabric of residential blocks and strip malls along Victory Blvd., the wellness center seeks to be a community anchor. By diagonally slicing the existing building, the project gains a newly landscaped open-air public plaza that acts as a green access wedge. This space welcomes visitors with a sequence of outdoor seating, grass areas and bicycle racks as well as outdoor steps apt for seating as well as events. Four courtyards afford doctors and patients natural light and air as well as easy access at a pedestrian scale to parking and the neighborhood. Large concrete cast planters create a cascading effect, breaking down the mass with texture to scale the building to its users.

The courtyards are visible from outside by means of diagonal cuts on the facade. With an ample terrace access facing the open plaza, the new mezzanine offices that are unique and integral to the curving bowstring roof appear as crystalline shapes. A renovated existing sign provides the otherwise horizontal project with a commanding, newfound, vertical iconicity. Along with the public promenade of the complex that culminates on Victory Plaza, this vertical element offers not only a marquee, but a civic dimension that emphasizes the center as a landmark and creates a spatial connection with the community.