Dakota County received a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health for the development of an Intensive Residential Treatment Services facility to fill a gap in their continuum of care for mental health in the southeast metro suburban county.
Having built a reputation as a great collaborator and service provider by working with Dakota County since 1987, Wold knew that by leveraging our internal expertise in healthcare, specifically our experience in mental health care facilities, we could partner with the County to develop a facility to surpass their expectations. Sited in the northeast corner of the Wold designed, 2001 Northern Service Center (NSC), the facility needed to both convey being a Dakota County facility while also eschewing the institutionalism normally associated with government facilities.
It needed to respect the adjacent six-story NSC, but differentiate itself as clearly being residential and restorative. Additionally, the site abutted a residential neighborhood that originally opposed the NSC and expressed concerns with the proposed 16-bed residential mental health facility. Siting of the structure, landscaping measures, and the desire for the facility by the greater West St. Paul community abated any NIMBY concerns and resulted in providing a badly needed facility in Dakota County that serves as an entry point to a longer stay residential facility and also as a place for patients re-entering their community following a longer-term residential treatment.