Community
This proposed 19,827 sf building on Wards Island, NY will house a 60-bed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility funded by the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). The ground floor will include administrative, clinical, nursing, counseling, classrooms, records, recreation, and dining areas. Dining and recreation—contiguous open spaces—can be easily converted into a single, large, multi-purpose room by retracting a folding wall that separates them. Two upper floors will provide predominantly double-occupancy bedrooms; common restrooms with showers; laundry, multi-purpose, and isolation rooms; lounges; and storage. A ground-floor breezeway will connect the new facility to the site’s existing building.
Challenges to project development include the site’s archaeological sensitivity due to the presence of a 19th-century potter’s field, century-old utility infrastructure, and the involvement of multiple stakeholder agencies.