This Youth Mental-Health Campus is Designed to Heal

Named after the Hawaiian word for family, the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, a youth mental-health campus, centers on the principle of caring—not just for patients but also their support networks. (Staff turnover in the psychiatric health sector is close to 40 percent.) To assist the mission, NBBJ turned to the power of nature and beauty, which is abundant in Monterey, California.

“We took the traditional institutional box that defines today’s behavioral-health facilities and bent it around the surrounding oak trees, symbolic of healing the site,” says lead designer Jonathan Ward of the project’s curved single-story volumes, filled with hospitality-style furniture and art chosen to support emotional processing and self-empowerment. The envelope of prefabricated cross-laminated timber embraces patients and visitors.

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“Upon arrival, the exposed timber structures are welcoming,” Ward adds. “We’re hardwired to react to nature—and to these warm, soft materials.” Floor-to-ceiling views connect the 16-bed residential program and out-patient clinic to the landscape, where winding garden paths lead to a fitness center, scented by the nearby Pacific Ocean and such fragrant plants as sagebrush and immunity-boosting lavender.