PHMC’s 4601 Market Street Project renovates a prominent historic building in the West Philadelphia neighborhood to bring outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance, and direct services to the community. The new space allows PHMC, to provide a range of child and family-oriented services under one roof in a facility designed to inspire health and well-being, delivering a client-centered, family inclusive experience.

Over seven programs are housed under the same roof; bringing physical, mental, and education services to the West Philadelphia Community. These programs include The Center for Autism, The Millcreek School, Community Mental Health, and a Health Center. The main community space on the first floor features large windows and family friendly furnishings to create a welcoming environment for a diverse population. A multi-purpose room expands into the waiting and reception area accommodating large community events. The adjacent life skills kitchen will feature demonstrations and programming to support healthy eating and nourishment.

Careful selection of programs that are included in this Public Health Campus included consideration of synergies between programs and the opportunities that co-location would bring each program and most significantly the community the programs serves. By co-locating programs that are typically found in different parts of the city, PHMC is able to deliver whole parson care addressing social determinates of health in a neighborhood in deep need of these services. With a focus on family and youth, the programs are able to support one another through programming.

This bringing together of programs, and sharing of spaces traditionally assigned to each single program, such as waiting, reception, consultation rooms, test kitchen,, multi-purpose rooms, meeting rooms, to name a few, required a new rent model which was developed to ensure equity among programs. Through this innovative model, resource-scarce programs gain access to facilities and amenities they would not typically have access to. As an example, School programs such as the art room, exercise room, Library and music rooms become accessible after school programs that teach and help trouble youth.

Designed to support the physical and emotional well-being of each staff member, the second floor at 4601 features a staff lounge and café, quiet areas, wellness rooms, team rooms, and technology enabled meeting spaces. Natural light and views flow into the workplace areas through large perimeter windows. As a result of this new model, staff from different programs are encouraged and benefit from cross pollination of ideas, resources, and methodologies.

Nurse family practitioners (NFP) can target planned parenthood programming for The Millcreek School, and the School nurse, located in the Health Center, can refer her patients to mental Health services all under one roof.

Inspired by the context and local landscape, large-scale graphics provide community focused messaging in support of the campus-wide themes of respite, retreat, and nature. Created in concert with way-finding strategies, the colors, textures, and themes organize the building into character zones that help to orient the building inhabitants.

Project Partners

• Owner – Public Health Management Corportation
• Developer – Iron Stone
• Architect – FIFTEEN Architecture + Design
• DEDC Engineer – MEP
• Structural Engineer – MacIntosh Engineering
• Lighting – BEAM Design
• Technology – BALA Engineering
• Acoustical Engineer – SMW