The Animal Care Center, based in East Harlem, provides a multitude of services, including rescuing varmints and wildlife that find their way into the city’s parks, euthanasia, animal safety education, and pet adoption. To foster a friendly, open environment for the community, the sole purpose of this new adjacent facility is to find homes for abandoned cats and dogs. The project is an adaptive reuse of an underutilized 1930s garage. The renovation of the one-story structure is not only a sustainable gesture but preserves the scale of this rapidly gentrifying residential neighborhood. New high-rise buildings reduce the amount of daylight. The facility will also increase safety with its active street presence.
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Global Future Design Awards 2025
Manhattan Pet Adoption Center
Renovation and Restoration (Built)
Firm
Studio Joseph
Architect/Designer
Wendy Joseph
Design Team
Wendy Evans Joseph – Principal Rafael Herrin-Ferri — Project Architect Alexios Bacolas — Project Manager Connie Wu — Architect and Project Manager Chris Raeburn — Architect and Project Manager Shuo Yang — Designer Derek Lee — Designer Emma Chen — Designer
Location
323 East 109th Street New York, NY 10029
Country
United States
Photographer/Copyright
©Alex Fradkin
Social Media Handles:
Website
N/A
The design maintains all existing openings—garage door, entry doors, and three internal skylights. Structural reinforcing for the brick party walls and shouldering for the wood joist roof were part of overall stabilization. A small underground utility room was hardened for resiliency. The mechanical design achieved LEED Silver certification, minimizing energy use while providing the required high levels of sewage treatment, lighting, and high-pressure cleaning that are required for animal care.
The facade celebrates pedestrian life, creating an engagingly joyful attraction for nearby residents and potential pet adopters from all areas. The cat colony brings natural light deep into the building’s public spaces. The “rain-screen” comprises a series of fins spaced 4″ apart and 3 1/2″ deep, protecting the original masonry façade, which is painted white and sealed. Twenty-five distinct colors are disseminated on seventy-five fins, forming a partial rainbow, from warm yellow tones to cooler greens and blues. When viewed from the south side of the street, the optical effect is of shades of gray. The existing brick at the entry was repaired, sealed, and painted white.
Safety and support for both animals and potential adopters are essential. Therefore, each dog has a kennel with sanitation, and each cat lives in a multi-level condo. “Meet and greet” rooms for individual meetups have views and natural light. In all areas, there is a graduated frit pattern (diamond shapes) on the glass with more opacity at animal heights to address psychological security for the animals. In the entry lobby, staff and adoptive families sit at a communal table, breaking hierarchical barriers and encouraging social bonding. The main feature of the welcoming space is a lenticular mural that employs a graphic drawing of a cat on one side of each fin and one of a dog on the other. This playful gesture echoes the façade strategy and celebrates the union of abandoned animals with new families. Since opening in the Fall of 2024, animal adoptions have increased dramatically, and animals spend almost 50% less time in the facility before finding new homes. These statistics have real meaning, as there has been a significant rise in pet abandonments in the post-pandemic world.
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