At the end of March, San Francisco State University will open a new Gator Student Health Center building, which will house a new dining hall in addition to all services for mental and physical health.
Student Health Services, Counseling & Psychological Services and Health Promotion & Wellness will all move into the building during Spring Break, finally being united under one roof, according to Dai To, associate vice president of Disability Access & Student Well-being.
The completion of the three-floor, 50,000-square-foot, all-electric building marks the end of the West Campus Green project. The building will begin to provide meals in Yerba Buena Dining Center on March 31, while health services will start on April 1.
Golden Gate Xpress received a tour of the building led by Lynne Riesselman, principal at EHDD Architecture, and Ron Kirkpatrick, SFSU’s director of capital planning and special projects.
Riesselman highlighted the all-electric design, including the commercial kitchen, which allows the facility to rely entirely on California’s clean energy grid. Other sustainability features include recycled and locally-sourced building materials, low volatile organic compound paints, and bioswales outside for stormwater management that allow rainwater to percolate into the ground rather than enter storm sewers. The building was designed with achieving a LEED Gold certification in mind.
The Bricks will close just before Spring Break, but Yerba Buena Dining Center will open afterward, offering the same snacks and drinks, according to an SFSU Dining Services Instagram post.
The dining center is on the ground floor, separate from the health areas. Floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides of the seating area provide abundant natural light.
“We wanted to make sure there’s a space where people had good connection back to nature… it’s proven to improve physiological, psychological and social health,” Riesselman said.
The windows are covered in small white dots to prevent birds from crashing into them.
The dining space is divided from the servery by a corridor spanning between the dining center’s two entrances.
Diners who want to eat elsewhere will be able to order food in advance and pick their items up from a food locker.
“That’s actually really cool,” said Baleryo Ortega, a first-year criminal justice student, after being shown a photo of the food lockers. “That’s super convenient, especially for students who don’t want to sit down or who have somewhere to go but are hungry.”
Before serving themselves from the food and drink stations or the large soft-serve machine, students may use combination lockers in an alcove to store their belongings.
“I’ve actually had my stuff stolen out of there,” said Nakaylah Jones, a second-year criminal justice student, referring to the current open shelving at Monarca Dining Hall. “I think that’s good — that’s way better that there’s locks that we can actually lock up our stuff.”
Visitors won’t be able to walk between the dining center and the health areas without exiting and re-entering the building, but the second and third floors overhang and cover the area between the entrances.
Kirkpatrick said that there’s a long window by the entrance to the health portion that rises to the second floor but most people won’t look up and notice it.
“This is one of my favorite parts of the building,” Kirkpatrick said. “I think the connecting of the different programs of the student health by creating this dimensional connection — double height space, it actually stitches the different parts of the Gator Student Health Center together. It’s really nice — Lynne’s idea.”
The first floor of the building’s health portion will house a pharmacy, spaces for workshops, the Medical Annex, which is for providing immediate medical care, and the Health & Wellness Hub, which is what Karen Boyce, HPW director, described as “a beautiful space where students can sit and relax or get free health resources and information.”
Unlike the current SHS pharmacy, the new pharmacy will have a retail space for students and staff to purchase over-the-counter medications, said To.
The second floor will be only for SHS. It will have exam rooms, procedure rooms, offices, workstations and a lab.
(Neal Wong / Golden Gate Xpress)
The third floor is going to house rooms for individual and group therapy provided by CAPS, as well as two comfort rooms for students in a mental health crisis.
“This is a place where if a student shows up and they’re really really distressed in a way that might upset people in the waiting area, or if they clearly want a space to wait for a counselor that is not the waiting area, this is where they go,” Riesselman said.
The floor will also have group spaces and offices for HPW and Disability Access & Student Well-Being.
“I think taking the services from where they were sprinkled all over campus and consolidating them into one building that’s in a more prominent location is a really good asset for the campus,” said Riesselman.
SHS, CAPS and HPW will only operate at the new building after moving in, To said.
Yerba Buena Dining Hall will initially open for lunch, snacks and late night food. In the summer, it will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. By fall, breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner and late night service will be available, according to the SFSU Dining Services website.
