Photograph

Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Photographs of drawings

01/01/1971

Drawing

Volumetric schematic layout of the building complex; a sketch of the initial idea for the layout of the clinic, on the basis of the fundamental principles and patterns.

Photographer:

Christopher Alexander/C.E.S., Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

PMT

Characteristics:

5 3/4"x6 1/4", B&W

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Content of

Project

Stanislaus County Mental Health Center 1970 to 1973

Modesto, CA, U.S.A.

Civic, Realized , Construction completed in 1973

Client:

Stanislaus County Mental Health Services - Dr. Hewitt F. Ryan, County Director of Psychiatric Services

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein

Contractor:

Beuving Construction, Oakdale, California

Project cost:

$1,500,000

Design and construction process:

1) Creation of a pattern language for the new mental health center, which defined the general spatial layout and conditions required by the psychiatric services. 2) Layout on the site: C.E.S. worked intensively on the ground with the team of users; in a period of about one week, the layout of the building on the site, according to the pattern language, was completed. 3) Final drawings: The plan laid out on the site with stakes, was then recorded on paper, and the final building drawings prepared directly from this data, with few changes. 4) Users were brought in again, while final decisions about structure and materials were made.

Project stages:

Pattern language for the project by clients and C.E.S. Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Development Design and Construction Drawings done after layout

A community mental health center for outpatients and outpatient care with seven buildings, including clinics, outpatient facilities, therapeutic departments for adults, teenagers and children, staff facilities, administrative offices, gardens, courts and walkways, with total area 24,000 square feet. The key ...

References

Scientific Research

Project Specific Pattern Languages - Specificity and Generality of Pattern Languages

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Pattern Languages in Practice

A shared pattern language in a project acts as the generic system which gives the power to the smaller local acts to form a whole. Within the process of making a project, every individual act of building differentiates space. However, ...

Reports

Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Incomplete Pattern Language for Community Mental Health Centers 01/06/1970

Project, Project Report

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Friedner D. Wittman, Clyde Dorsett, Coryl Jones, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, U.S.A.

Introductory summary followed by twenty-five distinct patterns; each pattern provides the solution to a problem related to the following: Community, Mental Health Center, Public Gathering Place, Main Entrance, Inpatient, Outpatient, Day Care, Circulation, Patients Social Area, Alcoves – Windows, Day ...