In New York City, animal care involves various services, from rescuing varmints and wildlife that find their way into its parks to euthanasia, animal safety education, and pet adoption. Animal Care Centers and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene decided it would be in the best interest of the animals and the public to create a separate, adjacent facility solely for adoption.
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Manhattan Pet Adoption Center
Interior Design (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
New York, United States
Country
United States
Photographer/Copyright
©Alex Fradkin
Renovating an underutilized 1930s garage on the premises creates a friendly place for pet adoption. The adaptive reuse of the one-story structure preserves the scale of this residential neighborhood. This tactic is particularly relevant as recent gentrification in East Harlem with high-rise construction reduces the amount of daylight and the feeling of safety. The new facility will also help revitalize the neighborhood, increasing safety with its street presence.
The garage’s public entry is on East 109th Street, and there is a staff entry from the north adjacent to the central part of the facility. Zoning required maintaining the existing openings (garage door, entry door, and window) as well as the size and location of the three internal skylights, and additional apertures were prohibited. The brick walls and wood joist ceiling have been stabilized structurally through shouldering, and a small underground utility room hardened for resiliency.
The facade celebrates pedestrian life, creating an engagingly joyful attraction for nearby residents and potential pet adopters from all areas. The former garage door opening is repurposed as a large viewing window for the cat colony, bringing natural light deep into the building’s public spaces. The existing brickwork is repaired and repainted. In front is a “rain-screen” composed of a series of 3 ½” fins that run the full height of the building. With the fins’ back panel and front surfaces painted grey and the colorful side, there is a lenticular effect as one walks down the street. Twenty-five distinct colors spread over seventy-five individual surfaces flicker from yellow tones to green to dark blue. When viewed from the south side of the street, the optical effect is of shades of grey. The existing brick at the entry is 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 has a multi-level condo. There are “meet and greet” rooms for individual meet-ups. A graduated frit pattern on the glass with more opacity at animal heights addresses psychological security.
The entry lobby creates a friendly welcome area where staff and adoptive families sit together at a shared table, breaking down administrative overtones. The lenticular mural that shows a cat or dog graphic as you move through the space has been a huge success with visitors. Since opening in the Fall of 2024, the number of animal adoptions has increased dramatically, with animals spending two weeks instead of four in the facility before finding new homes. The project will be LEED Gold.