Size

Site: 100,000 sq.ft.
Build: 30,000 sq.ft.

Year

2015

Status

Unbuilt

Client

Rhode Island Department of Health

Partners

City of Central Falls, RI; Blackstone Valley Community Health Care; Memorial Hospital Rhode Island (MHRI)

Portrait of David Saladik
David Saladik
Senior Principal
David Saladik

David Saladik

Senior Principal

David Saladik is a Senior Principal overseeing MASS’s international health portfolio. Having joined MASS in 2008 during the design of the Butaro District Hospital, his work over the last decade has been aimed at leveraging the built environment to improve health outcomes as well as engage and empower communities. He has spearheaded MASS’s expansion into new geographies focused on long-term health systems strengthening, establishing new offices in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Monrovia, Liberia.

David currently co-leads MASS’s largest office in Kigali, Rwanda with more than 80 architects, landscape architects, and engineers. Notable recent projects for which he has served as Principal-in-Charge include the Samajik Health Science Institute & Research Centre, a 520-bed teaching hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Norrsken Kigali House, an incubator for social entrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda; and the development of health facility standards with the Ministry of Health of Lagos State.

He has taught design studios at Northeastern University and Roger Williams rethinking primary care health centers to maximize positive social impact and resiliency. In parallel to this research, he led the design of the Family Health Center in McKinney, Texas - MASS’s first built US healthcare project.

Rendering of Neighborhood Health Stations of Rhode Island, Yoga and recreational space on raised patio

The Neighborhood Health Station concept regroups the ambulatory care services of a traditional community health center with urgent care and other services. It uses community programming and creative placemaking, providing access to fitness, foods, and educational programs, as part of a strategy to promote healthy lifestyles while inviting individuals and families to the facility as a center of activity in the neighborhood.

Rendering of Neighborhood Health Stations of Rhode Island, Soccer and recreational field

MASS worked with a coalition of partners to develop the concept, programming, and placemaking strategy for the 1st Neighborhood Health Station, around the aspiration to create a state-wide network of health stations.

Rendering of Neighborhood Health Stations of Rhode Island, View of courtyard and playground

After conducting immersive research in Central Falls, RI, including community engagement activities and stakeholder workshops, MASS proposed a series of indoor and outdoor interventions to successfully transform an existing community health facility into a vital and welcoming presence in the everyday life and care of the community.