COAR recently completed a remodel and expansion of San Diego Humane Society’s Adoption Habitats, their ‘first of its kind in California’ Center for Shelter Medicine. This project included a remodel and expansion of their adoptions floor, including innovative housing for dogs, cats, and small animals, as well as support space and exterior adoption areas.

The goals of the Adoption Habitats remodel were to maximize the quality of animal habitats to reduce stress by isolating sound, visibility, and smells, design and organize habitats to maximize guest interaction and decrease an animal’s average length of stay, create a flexible design that accommodates the facility’s changing needs, and integrate technology to improve efficiency of operations and enhance the guest experience. The program for this facility includes dog, cat, and small pet housing, exterior agility yards, guest interaction space, animal prep and care areas, retail, and a large lobby and waiting space. The dog adoptions area utilizes a staggered sawtooth habitat design to eliminate direct lines of sight between habitats for reactive dogs and create niches for guests to pause and have a focused interaction. The design of proper ventilation and drainage were prioritized to create a clean and healthy environment, and Solatubes are used throughout the facility to maximize natural daylight.

Clusters of habitats are grouped together and accessible from the back into a communal space for staff and volunteers to care for the dogs and maintain their spaces. Consultation areas and interaction rooms are scattered throughout the adoptions areas to allow guests to meet with staff and interact with adoptable animals. Varieties of housing types and spaces were designed to give SDHS the flexibility to accommodate the seasonal fluctuation of animal species and capacities. Materials throughout the facility were carefully selected based on acoustic properties, cleanability, durability, and aesthetics. With all material, systems, and constructability decisions, cost was considered alongside performance and aesthetics to find a solution that would provide SDHS the greatest value for their needs.