PROJECT NARRATIVE
Background
Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the United States, affecting 1 in 68 children, according to the CDC. There is no known cure, and most public services end at age 22. In the coming decade, as many as 500,000 American children with autism will reach adulthood, yet very few residential options exist to care for them. More than 80,000 adults with Autism across the country are on waiting lists for residential placements, with waiting periods as long as 8-10 years. Existing programs can create safe environments but generally isolate those with autism, not taking into account the fact that adults with Autism can and should have a range of choices and the ability to lead productive, fulfilling, independent lives with opportunities to socialize and integrate into their communities. Few of the available housing opportunities fully address the behavioral, sensory, and communications challenges of residents.
The Project
In 2009, a group of Northern California families of children with autism collaborated with professionals and civic leaders to found a non-profit organization with a vision: to design and build a residential community for adults with autism unlike anything available today. The group raised money, engaged consultants, and researched existing group homes and residential communities. They found and secured several adjacent undeveloped parcels in a residential neighborhood in the City of Sonoma in northern California, and clarified their mission: to provide adults with autism an innovative, supportive residential community that challenges each individual to reach his or her highest potential. Their founding principles:
- Celebrate and support the full range of autism spectrum disorders.
- Encourage active resident involvement in their home, neighborhood and surrounding communities.
- Provide access to productive, enriching choices that support a life with purpose.
- Offer the potential for lifetime residency.
- Utilize autism-specific design, which addresses both safety and sensory issues.
- Nurture long-term, high-value relationships between residents and support staff.
- Accommodate a broad financial spectrum.
- Create and foster a model that can be replicated nationwide.
The 2.8-acre infill campus includes four residences, each with four private bedrooms and shared kitchen, living room and terraces; a Community Center with teaching kitchen, workout room, library, art and music, and a large plaza; a therapy swimming pool with two spas and restroom; defined pathways, custom site furnishings, and play lawn; semi-private garden spaces; and a 1.25 acre organic vegetable garden and orchard with greenhouse and chicken coop.
Autism-specific Design
The physical environment for persons with autism is very important; they are often sensitive to outside stimuli. Some are uncomfortable with physical touch, or unable to make eye contact. The resident population also spans a broad range of levels of functioning. Some residents enjoy regular employment, study or volunteer in the community. Other residents are non-verbal or barely verbal, and may have motor skills challenges or impulse control issues.
Working with the client, the architect, and the City of Sonoma, the landscape architect built on published research including the excellent ‘Advancing Full Spectrum Housing: Designing for Adults with Autism Syndrome Disorders’, by Steele and Ahrentzen at Arizona State University, and ‘Opening Doors: A Discussion of Residential Options for Adults Living with Autism’, by the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center. Sweetwater has been designed with special considerations to minimize visual stimulation, ambient sound, lighting and odors. The progression of spaces from private room, to shared house, to the Sweetwater campus, to the greater Sonoma community is carefully designed to allow residents the ability to advance or retreat as needed. Spaces are designed to be simple and predictable, with transitions from one space to another left open to allow previewing of the next space. Water features are absent, and shade structures are either solid or of simple design, to eliminate distracting refraction and shade/light patterns. The plant pallet is mostly ‘quiet’, utilizing subtle and soothing variations of foliage color and form, and avoiding profusions of brightly colored blooms.
The swimming pool and the large plaza with basketball hoop, table tennis, play lawn, and seating allow for group activities and community interaction. Smaller outdoor rooms such as the hammock garden provide opportunities for individual time or one-on-one interaction, as well as the self-soothing effect of repetitive motion. Plant material and low site walls provide separation and definition of spaces without preventing staff monitoring. ‘Proximate seating’, benches on opposite sides of a low wall or at a discrete distance, allows residents to observe or participate at their own comfort level. A non-scalable fence and monitored gates provide privacy, security and containment for residents at the perimeter of the site. The property is essentially level, allowing all public and private spaces to be universally accessible, including the pool and spas and the greenhouse.
Sustainability
The project site, surrounded on all sides by residential neighborhoods, was intentionally chosen for its proximity to bike paths and public transit, within easy walking distance of shopping, banking and employment opportunities.
Wherever possible, construction materials and practices are safe, non-toxic, environmentally sound, and sustainable, utilizing locally sourced materials, and installed by local subcontractors. Lumber for fences and benches is FSC-certified; stains and sealers are low- or no-VOC. To achieve the required goals of durability and cost effectiveness, a family of site furnishings of board-formed concrete and cedar slabs was employed. Concrete with integral color was used for primary paths, with crushed gravel providing a softer counterpoint for secondary spaces. The custom pool fence meets pool safety codes, but utilizes a steel coil fabric that avoids pinch points.
As a part of the sustainable site strategies and to provide for storm water management on site, pervious gravel paving was used for parking areas and drives, and the site is ringed on three sides by bio-swales. Plant material is drip irrigated using water from an on-site well, and was selected to meet the city’s water efficient landscape ordinance while providing year-round interest, shade, and relief from the built environment, and avoiding potentially irritating, sharp or toxic leaves and fruit. The plant palette leans heavily on California native trees, shrubs, perennials and ornamental grasses, supplemented by Mediterranean climate adapted selections. Bio-swales feature riparian plant material that can handle annual winter inundation, but survive the hot dry California summer with minimal irrigation. The organic farm and orchards provide healthy produce and eggs for residents, staff and visitors.
Sustainable features of the architecture include cool roofs, solar PV panels and solar water heating, natural ventilation, day lighting and solar tube skylights, high R-value walls and roofs, high performance windows and radiant floor heating.
Created as a pilot community, Sweetwater Spectrum represents a long overdue model that is intended to be replicated nationwide.
