Last weekend I had the opportunity to help put some of the finishing touches on a senior design/build project in the downtown east side. The studio was led by Inge Roecker an Assistant Professor at UBC SALA who also runs her own practice: Asir Architekten in Stuttgart and Vancouver. 
The project was to build a women’s pharmacy on West Hastings Street that would be a welcoming environment and help to fulfill a number of different needs that are not currently being met within the community. Lu’s Pharmacy for Women has a pharmacy counter at the front that any woman can use to fill her prescription. From what a I understand the dispensing fees will be much lower than those at a regular pharmacy and the prescription sales will help fund the pharmacies other operations. These include a database of doctors in the area with testimonials from female patients, a resource centre and library, meeting areas for workshops and also a doctor’s office.
The students in the studio raised $115, 000 and worked with Vancouver Women’s Health Collective to create a space that is beautiful, safe, and highly functional. I am very appreciative of having the opportunity to help do some work in the space because now that the pharmacy is open for business men will no longer have the opportunity to see the interior of the site. I highly recommend that all women in the area check it out at 29 West Hastings Street. 
Here is a TED lecture given by Idette De Boer a UBC SALA thesis student, on the project, its significance in the community, and their design.
http://www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks/2009/02/03/idette-de-boer-community-outreach-design/
5 Comments
Wow, Ms. De Boer's dress is awesome.
Now that I've got the stereotypically "girl" comment out of the way, I'll say that I think the project is great, architecturally, and I think the endeavor as a school project is an amazing, wonderful experience for students.
I do have mixed feelings about the program; basically, whenever I hear that women need a special i.e. safe place to deal with their health needs, it makes me angry. Would men put up with feeling like they were being judged/threatened when they needed healthcare?
I realize that's a bigger conversation than an architecture project can solve, so cheers to the fantastic work of the students and professor!
Care to elaborate, collage?
i'll say two things; first, most men have a hard time talking about or going to doctors regarding their medical issues - prostate, colon, ED, mental, so i would welcome a place, a clinic that dealt specifically with male issues...second, while i do agree, and feel that it's necessary that women have a "safe" place to get treatment, i wonder how much longer will we all have to go down this road of clouding the health issues of women as some kind of mysticism? i still remember, back in 5th grade, when the girls were pulled out class, taken to another room, while the boys watched some dumb film; no explanation was given, and it was only after junior year in high school did i find out what all the hub-bub was about....the ever magical menstrual cycle, and the howling at the moon thing you ladies do....;]
some day we'll all need to talk like adults, and start communicating with one another. there's very little we don't know about each other.
beta, I get what you're saying, and wish, especially in the midst of the current American health care debate, that we could all talk like adults about real health issues.
But there is a substantial difference: men feel embarrassed about certain health issues, like ED. Women feel physically threatened, often, when they seek reproductive health care, because in America we have a judgmental attitude that women who want to have sex are sinful, while men who want to have sex are only pursuing their god-given (and insurance company sanctioned, in the case of ED) right.
collage, did you anonymously email me an article about this project? Why not get that discussion out here in the open?
liberty, i totally agree with you, on all points. and i for one think that disparities in how women are treated vis-a-vis sex is but one area of ridiculousness.
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