This new 6,000 square foot office fit-out for Independence Care System (ICS) is an expansion adjacent to an existing outreach and office center in downtown Brooklyn.

ICS is a not-for-profit advocate organization for the disabled providing community center functions, counseling, workshops, and wheelchair maintenance services. This is one of three centers located in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Located on the 5th floor of what was the JW Mays Department Store, the new office retains many of the existing decorative features that were part of the original store construction from the early 20th Century. Combining original pressed tin ceilings and ornate wood moldings, the space is an amalgam of old and new, with the ghost of a demolished staircase visible on an existing demising wall.

In addition to their constituents, many of the employees are also disabled and a broad central corridor allows ample maneuverability for wheelchairs. Running parallel for its entire length is an illuminated fascia. With natural light entering at the west end of the space, this glowing surface symbolically extends the light from the café area at the windows along the entire 150-foot length of the office.

An existing brick bearing wall intersects the illuminated fascia where an opening was created to allow access to a new call center at the rear of the space. In addition, a neighboring tenant space to the north, with only one exit stair, required the inclusion of a new public corridor through the new ICS space as part of the fit-out design. Bifurcating the plan, the passageway was conceived as a tunnel that does not reach the ceiling allowing the volume of the space to flow above it. Painted red to signal its emergency egress function; glass doors on hold-opens allow passage through it.

This new off- site primary care clinic is one in a series of new neighborhood practices intended to raise the profile of the New York Hospital Queens in the surrounding community. Located on a corner site along the busy thoroughfare of 30th Avenue in Astoria, the distinctive design is intended to give this satellite facility a powerful presence in the neighborhood.

A new entrance canopy was added to provide shelter and act as an emblem for the facility. The canopy leads into a ceiling plane within the waiting room; visible from the exterior it creates a strong form along the street.

A perforated metal screen was used to mask the irregular pattern of existing windows on the ground floor. The screen allows daylight to enter during the day and artificial light to emit a mysterious glow on the exterior in the evening. Floating above the newly clad ground floor, the second story brick box is unchanged save for the front elevation where the two existing windows were combined into one overt horizontal opening increasing the natural light in the upper waiting room and forming a distinct composition in harmony with the glass and steel elevation below.

The two-story brick building was completely gutted to accommodate new exam and consultation rooms. The main circulating corridor on both floors is located along the perimeter of the cross street to allow natural light to enter into the patient area. Waiting rooms on the first and second floor will allow ample amounts of controlled natural light into the space.

Distinct geometric volumes interact with each other at the reception desk and a new boldly-colored enclosed stair volume provides a dramatic transition between floors and is also visible from the street. In addition, an illuminated ceiling spills light onto the sidewalk through the floor to ceiling glass contributing to the unique presence of NYHQ in the surrounding area.

Awards and Publications:
2016       Masonry Design Magazine “This Satellite Facility is a Powerful Presence in the Community” May 2016
2016       SNAP Architectural News + Products “Curb Appeal” Jan/Feb 2016
2015       AIA National Healthcare Design Honor Award

Mental Health & Primary Care Clinic

The new Callen-Lorde Community Health Center satellite clinic combines two separate but related disciplines on two floors in an 8-story, turn-of-the-century loft building in Chelsea in New York City. The new off-site practice houses a mental health facility on the 5th floor and a primary care clinic on the 4th floor. The health center sought to develop a site that would meet the very different regulatory requirements of the two practices which included occupying separate spaces. Through design, a seamless experience is created for patients accessing their behavioral and medical care. The setting provides licensed medical care and mental health with case managers floating between the two spaces ensuring that patients receive both services and that there is no conflict between the treatment plans or therapeutic regimens.

The square layout of the 5th floor has service spaces along the east and west party walls with consultation rooms along the north and south window walls. Channel glass partitions along the corridors allow natural light to enter deep into the facility. The channel glass provides the necessary acoustical and visual privacy required for psychotherapy while maintaining a robust surface for the occasional patient impact. Upon entering, a linear waiting room under a lowered blue ceiling sits opposite the reception desk and large group room. With its distinctive circular perforated doors the multi-purpose meeting room is divisible into two smaller group rooms and opens up completely to the waiting area for larger events. The cork floors and exposed, surface-mounted light fixtures with the adjacent baffle ceilings are intended to give the new mental health facility a warm and modern atmosphere antithetical to typical institutional healthcare design. A complement of cool and calming blues were employed to complete the palette.

The primary care clinic comprises half of the 4th floor. Intended to serve the patients of the mental health facility one floor above, a similar palette of materials was employed in the design. Exam rooms line the south facing wall with clerestory windows allowing natural light to enter the corridor and interior exam rooms across the hall. Strong graphics and a baffle ceiling along with similarly blue-colored wall and ceiling planes provide a distinct look for the facility which is in harmony with the mental health facility on the floor above.

Awards and Publications:

2018       AIANY Interiors Speed Presentation Selection

Michielli + Wyetzner Architects are helping to create a brand for off-site satellite health centers for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. Their new extension clinic combines mental health and primary care services in a single location in the underserved South Bronx. Located on the ground floor in a storefront space, the clinic contains exam rooms therapy rooms and support spaces.

Through design, a seamless experience is created for patients accessing their behavioral and medical care. The single setting provides licensed medical and mental health care ensuring that patients receive both services without conflict between the treatment plans or therapeutic regimens.

Upon entering the facility, an illuminated wall runs the length of the linear waiting room. Visible from the street, the glowing fascia provides a strong presence in the surrounding neighborhood. Large translucent windows provide abundant amounts of natural light from the sidewalk beyond. Designed as two separate pavilions, the reception stations for the clinic and a separate pharmacy contain lockable roll down gates for security.

Therapy and exam rooms, and support spaces are located off of a double loaded corridor at the rear. A high ceiling allows for large clerestory windows that bring natural light deep into the interior. Intended to relate to another Callen-Lorde clinic in Chelsea, vibrant colors and cork floors and metal baffle ceilings complete a warm and welcoming palette.

Michielli + Wyetzner Architects designed the 7,000 square foot Department of Orthopedics medical suite for the Faculty Practice Associates. The clinic includes exam rooms, an X-ray suite, doctors’ offices and offices for billing and scheduling. A generous central corridor allows patients to circulate through on crutches or with an attendant. Bamboo walls protected with vertical stainless steel hand rails provide a visually rich environment. Outdated X-ray light boxes are used as art pieces in the public spaces, while exam rooms are outfitted with the latest digital technology. The reception and waiting area provides a large format LED screen for relaying the latest practices and procedures in orthopedics.

This five-floor, 40,000 square foot interior encompasses the offices, workshops, training areas and technology centers for three independent, but programmatically linked organizations: PHI, ICS & CHCA. Delivering high-quality care to the disabled constituents they serve, the users required a space especially suited to the unique needs of each organization.

The design provides distinct elements to make each floor, which is dedicated to a specific organization, unique. Elements common to each, such as cafés and lounges provide a sense of coherence across the build-out. Located in the top floors of a 14-story building, low walls and glass partitions provide natural light and views outdoors from essentially every office or workstation.

Awards and Publications:
2013       New York Real Estate Journal, “Michielli + Wyetzner designs new space for three not for profits”, July 2013

2011 Winner of American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award, the 6,000 square foot NYU Langone Medical Center Courtyard is bounded on all four sides by existing medical center building and sits above an existing complex of basement laboratories. MWA and landscape architect Joanna Pertz, designed a new elevated planting bed above the only section of the courtyard situated over earth to be the focus of the space. Two existing marble lion sculptures bookend the planter where birch trees, mondo grass and ferns are clustered on the south end of the planter that gives way to a mounded lawn at the north that enjoys direct sunlight. Precast concrete steps wrap three sides of the planter. Along with a row of black granite benches opposite an informal seating area is created for people to gather and relax. New wood table seating occupies the zone to the south of the courtyard creating an outdoor extension of the adjacent interior café. A line of large-scaled dish planters with perennials and birch trees masks the solid stone facade at the west. Gray precast concrete pavers provide a sense of scale for the courtyard with a beach stone border acting as a transition to the surrounding facades.

Awards and Publications:
2012       ASLA Design Merit Award