Rice Fergus Miller Awarded Best in Adaptive Reuse For Quinault Wellness Center in Aberdeen, WA
BREMERTON, Wash. — Rice Fergus Miller won a 2023 Symposium Distinction Award for their design of the Quinault Wellness Center for the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN). Specifically, the project received ‘Best Adaptive Reuse’. The award, bestowed by the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, is dedicated to honoring projects that “recognize a healthcare design project that creatively achieved the reuse of an existing structure or space originally used for another purpose,” according to the award’s website.
The project, located in Aberdeen, WA, is a 18,000sf conversion of a forty-year-old structure which was completely gut renovated to support its new purpose of providing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services, primary care, dental, behavioral health care, and childcare to the surrounding community. The facility is a healing center for QIN members and the general community who are experiencing substance use disorder. The Tribe is committed to reducing the adverse impact of the opioid epidemic on families in Grays Harbor County and has invested millions of dollars to bring the wellness center to fruition. The clinic began treating patients in the spring of 2023.
As one of only a few clinics nationally that pairs a MAT with wraparound services such as primary care, dental care, counseling, social services, and childcare, the center is notable for its contemporary, holistic approach to addiction treatment.
“This place has meant everything to me and my child; he was able to come here for Child Watch while I was in treatment; […] we are now thriving from the care that we have received here,” says a Quinault Wellness Center patient. According to the Washington State Department of Health, Grays Harbor County has one of the highest rates of opioid-related overdose deaths in the state, and American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are twice as likely as any other demographic group to die from an opioid-related overdose.
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About Rice Fergus Miller
Rice Fergus Miller, Inc.—a B Corp., is an architecture, interior design, and planning firm based in Bremerton, Washington. Established in 1987 and the only architecture firm in Washington State with Certified B Corporation status, the firm is committed to performing meaningful work that builds and strengthens communities. Housed in a reclaimed Sears auto service center that is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the United States, Rice Fergus Miller blends the personal aspirations of its more than 50 team members with a vision for sustainable design. In 2022, the firm is celebrating 35 years in business. Learn more at www.rfmarch.com
About The Symposium Distinction Awards
The Symposium Distinction Awards, hosted by the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, are designed to highlight the people and projects elevating and innovating the field of healthcare design. Learn more at https://hcarefacilities.com/awards/
About the Quinault Indian Nation
The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) is a federally-recognized sovereign nation located on the southwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula. They are among the small number of Americans who can walk the same beaches, paddle the same waters, and hunt the same lands their ancestors did centuries ago. The Quinault Indian Reservation is a land of magnificent forests, swift-flowing rivers, gleaming lakes and 23 miles of unspoiled Pacific coastline. Its boundaries enclose over 208,150 acres of some of the most productive conifer forest lands in the United States. Learn more at https://www.quinaultindiannation.com/