PYATOK | Project Work

THE VILLAGE SF WELLNESS CENTER Friendship House Association of American Indians

San Francisco, California Health + Wellness / In Design / Senior + Supportive Housing

The Village will be a first-of-its-kind “gathering of fires” and inter-tribal home for San Francisco’s urban American Indian community at the heart of the newly-formed American Indian Cultural District. A complex client group here envisions a physical, cultural, and spiritual nexus that facilitates community connection and provides essential services by and for urban American Indians, with goals of ensuring the wellbeing of this community and bringing visibility to Indigenous Peoples.

The compact, vertical building will embrace and express shared indigenous values, prioritizing resilience, sustainability, and longevity. An exterior of organic forms will be clad in terracotta “baguettes” that provide sunshading while retaining window operability. The mass timber structure enables a natural expressiveness while allowing for widely varying program uses throughout. The lower floors will accommodate community-based services like housing navigation, benefits counseling, workforce development, and education, as well as provide dedicated space for a citywide American Indian youth and teens program. A medical and dental clinic operated by the Native American Health Center will occupy two floors. Post-treatment transitional housing is provided for those seeking a professional path in social work. A Women’s Lodge will serve women with young children who need substance use treatment and women that are victims of sex trafficking. On the rooftop, a healing garden, productive farm, and talking circle will reconnect visitors and residents to reclaimed earth and sky.

The client coalition consists of Friendship House Association of American Indians, Native American Health Center, the American Indian Cultural District, and the American Indian Cultural Center – all organizations that serve San Francisco’s Indigenous population.

Awards

Environmental Justice Merit Award - 2024 USGBC-CA Green Building Awards
Winner - 2023 Softwood Lumber Board Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero-Carbon
Honor Award, On the Boards Category - 2022 AIA East Bay Design Awards
Merit Award, Best Supportive/Transitional Housing (On the Boards) - 2021 PCBC Gold Nugget Awards
Speaker Emerita Pelosi Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition
Justice40 Accelerator Cohort Member, 2021

Personnel