Texas A&M architecture students unveiled designs for a new facility to house the Victory Family Recovery Center, an inner city faith-based drug treatment program in Houston, during a public presentation at Victory Family Church, 712 Llano St. in Pasadena.
Five alternative architectural designs for the 14-year-old center were presented in models and sketches developed by students in a fourth-year healthcare architecture studio led by George J. Mann, holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facilities Design at Texas A&M University.
“The students were challenged to create a facility that better portrays the transformative mission of the Victory Family, which has been hampered by the run-down, dilapidated buildings currently in use,” said Steve Treviño, the center director.
The nonprofit Victory Family Recovery Center currently provides a no-cost, Christian faith-based six-month residential recovery program for men and women with substance abuse problems.
“Our mission is to bring Jesus to hurting people, restore families, change lives and provide a safe haven for people where their addictive natures can be overcome through the power of Jesus Christ,” said Treviño.
Located at 222 Royder St. in Houston, the center is mostly housed in a two-story apartment building that was donated to Victory Family Church in 1992. At the time, Treviño said, the building had become a magnet for drug and criminal activity.
The recovery center opened in 1994 as a registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization in the rehabilitated apartment building and it has since expanded to included two adjacent homes. The program has also grown to serve approximately 100 clients at the Royder St. site, but time and extensive use have taken a toll on the facilities. A building campaign is now under way to raise funds for a new, modern facility to meet the center’s current and future needs.
Upon learning of the center’s building campaign, 272nd District Court Judge Travis Bryan III of Brazos County, who has closely worked with the recovery program, put Treviño in touch with Mann’s healthcare architecture studio at Texas A&M.
Co-directing the project and lending expert advice to Mann’s students were Joseph J. McGraw, professor emeritus of architecture at Texas A&M, and Kazuhiko Okamoto, an assistant professor of architecture from Japan, who is being sponsored by the University of Tokyo and Kajima Corporation as a visiting scholar at Texas A&M.
The five student concepts for the new center, though widely varied, are designed to replace the existing structures and accommodate residential housing for 70 men, 15 women and administrative space for the center staff.
Most designs include courtyards and gardens surrounding separate structures for men and women, which are close to a centrally located chapel that also serves as a meeting hall for everyone at the center.
Some of the students’ building plans employ a phased development strategy that permits use of some of the center’s existing buildings during construction.
The students received advice on phasing the construction process, as well as help with construction methods, techniques and the selection of materials from professional constructors with the Linbeck Group — including Chuck Greco, Linbeck’s president and CEO and an Outstanding Alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Architecture.
Prior to tackling the design, students researched other drug rehabilitation centers and learned more about the philosophy of faith-based recovery programs. Based on this research, many of the designs emphasize courtyards as space facilitating study as well as free time endeavors.
In addition to separate residential rooms for men and women, the designs provide multiuse study and recreation rooms, kitchen and dining facilities, and housing for the director. Some designs also include a food pantry to serve center residents as well as needy families in the surrounding community.
“All the designs sought a sustainable or ‘green’ solution, with energy conservation and renewable energy and materials in mind,” said Southern Ellis, an architecture student on one of the project teams.
Anyone interested in learning more about Victory Family Recovery Center programs, or who would like to contribute to its building program or non-profit mission, may visit the center’s website at http://www.victoryfamilycenter.org/
“Now, we want to get busy and build one of the new buildings proposed by Texas A&M,” said Treviño.
- November 11, 2008 -
