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Stanislaus County Mental Health Center
1970 to 1973A 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 item in the program was the NIMH requirement that architects work with the users to program and design the building. This was done with a team of psychiatric staff and patients, led by Dr. Hewitt Ryan. A pattern language specific to the project was developed by a C.E.S. team together with the clinic director and staff, as the first step of the design process. These initial patterns contributed to the structuring and formulation of patterns in "A Pattern Language".
Contents
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: To establish in writing the formal commitment of the Center for Environmental Structure to work with Dr. Ryan on the design of project
11/12/1970
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Letter referring to the enclosure named "Incomplete Language of the Mental Health Centers", the work done on patterns and a notification that there is still work to be completed with an outline of that work and directions for moving forward
18/06/1970
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Sketches
01/06/1970
Two sketches relating to the initial attempts to develop a pattern language for community mental health centers.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Preliminary Design Drawings
01/01/1971
A freehand layout drawing of the clinic buildings, drawn to scale; it is the first overall layout plan of the clinic.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Preliminary Design Drawings
01/01/1971
Two hardline drawings, depicting the clinic building layout; it includes the first floor plan and the roof plan.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Incomplete Pattern Language for Community Mental Health Centers
01/06/1970
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 ...
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Stanislaus County Mental Health Services - County Mental Health Plan 1971-1972
01/01/1971
41-page document, with 11-page addenda; includes Program Plan: I. Goals & Philosophy; II: Treatment Plan; III. Budget; Addendum A and Addendum B.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: 1. The Whole Controls the Detail; 2. Organicness; 3. Loose Enough for Mental Health - Too Tight for Mental Health
01/01/1971
Three typewritten sets of notes, seven pages in total; they refer to the fundamental design principles for the project.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Item A: Architectural Program of Square Foot and Cost Estimate for the Modesto Community Mental Health Center
23/01/1971
9-page analysis and summary of program of spaces with net and gross areas, plus outdoor spaces required, with rough approximation of total cost.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Item B: Specifications of Performance Standards for the Modesto Community Mental Health Center, in the Form of Patterns
23/01/1971
5-page list of patterns organized hierarchically as per the building space components; the description of the fifty proposed patterns can be found under “Early Patterns” .
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Photographs of drawings
01/01/1971
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.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Photographs of drawings
01/01/1971
Initial sketch for the clinic layout produced by the first participants in the project workshop, during a charette; a spatial organization of initial patterns and courtyards.
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Modesto Community Mental Health Center: Photographs of drawings
01/01/1971
Freehand layout drawing of the clinic buildings, drawn to scale; the first overall layout plan of the clinic.
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References
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The Layout Process of Buildings on the Land - Visualization at Full Scale on Site
Each act of building needs to have a positive effect on its surroundings; to complete them, preserve their structure, make them better, by creating strong centers in them and next to them. Each new building is more alive when it ...
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Designing with Patterns and Generic Rules for Making Centers
Pattern languages consist of a multitude of patterns which reflect and define a way of life, people's inner feelings and aspirations, they relate to culture, to climate and to the actual place, and they are rooted in observation. During the pattern ...
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Development of first Patterns and Pattern Languages
The first patterns were developed in 1967 by a group of people working together with Christopher Alexander in the Center for Environmental Structure. Between 1968 and 1976 the first pattern languages were developed and tested for particular projects undertaken by ...
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A Pattern Language
1977
“A Pattern Language” is the second volume of “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to ...
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The Timeless Way of Building
1979
“The Timeless Way of Building” is the opening work in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. Here Alexander introduces the ideas behind the succeeding books. The book lays the foundation of the series. It ...
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Architectural Lecture Series: The Growth of Order from Small Acts
06/02/1974
Tape with lecture given at the Department of Architecture, on “what it means to create something;” the duration of the lecture is about one hour and twenty minutes.
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The Center for Environmental Structure: Portfolio of Projects
01/01/1989
A presentation of sixteen projects developed at The Center for Environmental Structure until 1989. 75-page portfolio with Part One “Completed Projects”, Part Two “Current Projects”, concluding with “Additional Projects”. The projects included are: 1) The Linz Cafe, 2) The Sala ...
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"Buildings Surround Open Space" Pattern
01/04/1966
Early formulation of pattern on a 2-page format with: Title of Pattern, Photo, Statement of Problem, Solution, Diagram, Author/s, Date, revision Date and Notes; revised in 1970.
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"Eight Beds per Nurse" Pattern
01/01/1967
Early formulation of pattern on a 2-page format with: Title of Pattern, Photo, Statement of Problem, Solution, Diagram, Author/s, Date, revision Date and Notes. Revised in Dec-1970.
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"Sleeping OK" Pattern - Original
01/07/1968
Early formulation of pattern on a 2-page format with: Title of Pattern, Photo, Statement of Problem, Solution, Diagram, Author/s, Date, revision Date and Notes; included in “A Pattern Language”, pattern #94 Sleeping in Public. Revised in Jun-1970.
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The Building History of a Building: The Stanislaus County Mental Health Center
01/09/1980
38-page paper on the design process of the Stanislaus County Mental Health Center in Modesto, designed by the Christopher Alexander and CES on the basis of a pattern language developed for a mental health clinic. Written for the Arch 278b ...
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The Unified Building Process: Variables which Produce a Coherent Structure of Space
01/11/1986
378-page doctoral dissertation in nine chapters, based on the fundamental assumption that “wholeness”, as geometric quality of space, is dependent upon the process that generates it. Chapter 1: Design and Construction as a Unified Act. Chapter 2: Feeling and actuality. ...