Montage Health Ohana Campus

Project highlights: Montage Health Ohana Campus

• Architecture firm:  NBBJ
• Owner: Montage Health
• Location: Monterey, Calif.
• Category: B
• Project Site: Not previously developed
• Building program type(s): Healthcare - clinic

• People suffering from mental health issues are often forced to seek treatment in institution-like facilities that promote isolation instead of healing. Montage Health’s new Ohana Campus seeks to change that narrative as it provides inpatient, outpatient, and community care for young people in the Monterey, California, region.

  The nation’s mental health crisis continues to swell, and this project is a critical addition in California, which lacks resources for treating children and adolescents. Across the state, fewer than 1,050 child psychiatrists serve a population of more than 9 million children and teens. The dearth of care is compounded by the fact that 44 of California’s 58 counties have no child and adolescent psychiatric beds.

  The project was supported by a generous donation from Bertie Bialek Elliott, financier Warren Buffet’s sister, who gave $100 million to the Monterey-based nonprofit Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, CHOMP for short. To launch Ohana, which translates to “extended family” in Hawaiian, CHOMP selected the design team and conducted a year-long search before tapping Dr. Susan Swick, an innovator in evidence-based, family-centered care, to lead it. 

Ohana’s design draws on the latest in neuroscience research to shape a healing environment for children and teens while simultaneously boosting the well-being of caregivers. The project unites an outpatient clinic, outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, and a 16-bed residential program. Its architecture emerges from a series of softly curved one-story volumes that offer a welcoming embrace inside and out. Much like the comfort of a real embrace, the building creates a sense of togetherness that uplifts patients and their loved ones at an inflection point in their lives.

Evidence proves that connections to nature lead to positive outcomes, whether gardening to reduce anxiety or getting fresh air to stimulate creativity and mental acuity. That connection is the core concept around which the project’s sustainable strategies are organized. Immersed in nature, the team’s design created a series of large outdoor cloisters, patios, and terraced spaces that offer moments of respite. Flowing water winds through the steeply sloped coastal canyon site, while gardens filled with immunity-boosting plants provide spaces for therapy and music.

The project concept calls for the development of an entire “Ohana Universe” focused on early intervention and prevention so that intensive inpatient care isn’t necessary. The first building of the campus outpatient program will later feed into a network of “Ohana Huts” within schools, pediatric doctors’ offices, and youth service locations. These will strengthen the community’s resilience while destigmatizing care and making it accessible to everyone.