Welcome to Fall! This month, we are excited to share an interview with Environmental Works's incoming Executive Director Jess Zimbabwe, a profile of the Compass Health project, and highlights from recent social media.
On October 26, Jess Zimbabwe will come on board as we begin EW's Executive Director transition process. For EW Board President Jeanne Marie Coronado's announcement about the ED transition, click here. Jess joins us from her current role as Principal of Plot Strategies. Previously, she led the Rose Center for Public Leadership and the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. She serves on the boards of Next City, the National Main Street Center, and Colloqate. She teaches urban planning at Georgetown University and the University of Washington. Read on for a short interview with Jess.
What brought you to the Pacific Northwest?
My husband got a job out here running the Seattle Department of Transportation. He had followed me 14 years ago when I got a job in DC, so it seemed like my turn, maritally speaking. We were fortunate to have several old friends, a few cousins, and many professional colleagues out here, so we’ve felt very welcome from the get-go.
You’ve followed a unique professional path for an architect. What’s inspired you to do the work you’ve done?
When I was in graduate school at Berkeley, an architecture professor contended, “Architecture should never be political.” His remark set off a light bulb in my head; I thought, “I believe the exact opposite of that! Architecture and design represent what a society believes and stands for, not just buildings in wood and stone." How could architecture not be political? When architects and designers don’t acknowledge their work is political, it risks becoming a pawn in someone else’s political agenda. I am an architect because of architecture's on-the-ground capacity to directly respond to inequality, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Throughout my career, I've sought to strengthen architecture's advancement of social, economic, and environmental justice.
How did you become interested in community engagement?
I spent much of my childhood living in Flint, during an era (covered in the 1989 Michael Moore film Roger & Me) characterized by extreme poverty and dramatic population declines due to outsourcing, offshoring, increased automation, and moving manufacturing jobs to non-union facilities. At the time, I didn’t know much about the study of cities or design. But I grasped that the decisions crushing the people of Flint and the places they cared about were being made by non-residents in faraway boardrooms. I came to appreciate the importance of engaging community members in decision-making, especially in the creation of places that will be vessels for community and shared life.
How did you learn about Environmental Works?
I first learned of Environmental Works through friends and colleagues in the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship and the Association for Community Design, two networks have brought innumerable good people and good ideas my way throughout my career.
What drew you to EW?
The team at EW are a great group of immensely talented folks who are committed to delivering design as part of the solution to our biggest challenges. I’m a team-focused person, and was excited at the prospect of joining this great team with which I could push, pull, amplify, and improve ideas.
What do you enjoy doing in your off hours?
We spend a lot of our weekends exploring with our two kids: hikes, museums, camping, neighborhood walks. In February, I took an afternoon off work when my kids were off school and we created a walking tour of the Chinatown-International District organized around seven places to stop and get dumplings. We ate more than 100 dumplings that day. I also like music, reading, cooking, textile art, and IPA beer. We have four pets in our family, including a parrot that surprisingly laid its first-ever egg this past weekend.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for architecture now? For the nonprofit sector?
When we emerge from this pandemic and its related recession, our city, region, state, and country will still be facing huge obstacles in the built environment. In addition to rectifying displacement pressures and under-investment in BIPOC communities, and developing solutions to a decades-long housing affordability crisis, we’ll need to work quickly to build communities that use less carbon. And, we’ll have to radically re-imagine how we can share public spaces while minimizing public health risk. It’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation for the design and planning professions. I'm eager for EW to contribute to responses to these challenges.
Photo credit: BNBuilders
In 1997, several health care agencies with roots stemming back to 1902 joined forces to create Compass Health. The largest behavioral health provider in Snohomish County, Compass Health also operates in Island, Skagit, Whatcom, and San Juan Counties. It provides a full continuum of care to people with behavioral health needs, including housing and substance use treatment as well as counseling, medication management, and crisis services.
Recognizing the tremendous need for housing and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness, Compass Health envisioned its Broadway Campus Redevelopment Project in alignment with the City of Everett's Safe Streets program. Environmental Works has been honored to partner with Compass Health on Phase I of the project: a new 5-story, 47,000 square foot building in downtown Everett with 82 units of permanent supportive housing for people with chronic behavioral health challenges. Residents will include veterans and other community members experiencing homelessness, as well as individuals transitioning back into the community from Western State Hospital and other treatment settings. Resident services will include a meals program and on-site counseling. The ground floor will also provide space for supportive social services and counseling for non-residential clients, and offices.
To maximize the building's therapeutic benefits, the floor plan provides views into the landscape from all community common spaces; a variety of areas for private, semi-private, and public interactions; windows positioned to heighten connection to nature; an outdoor patio off the dining area; and a special outdoor space for pets.
The team broke ground in February, and construction will be completed by April of 2021. Team members include Lotus Development, BNBuilders, the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, Snohomish County Housing and Community Services, and the Housing Authority of Snohomish County. Visit here for a full list of partners and funders, and our social media for construction updates!
