This project reconceptualizes the environment surrounding the adoption of pets. Replacing the concept of adoption is an idea of ‘re-homing’. With this term comes the implication that these animals are well-adjusted and just going from one home to another home. The design responds directly to this and although the site is in an industrial area, the architecture is more residential, from the exterior siding to the interior design.
Designed to the theme of a Cape Cod home opening to a boardwalk lined by beachside cabins, it provides a truly unique level of comfort and sophistication while providing the most comprehensive and in depth services ever offered in this context. The minute you walk through the doors, you realize you are entering a new era in animal rescue. Two years in planning and construction, the state of the art 11,000 square foot home has been designed from the ground up to deliver a level of service and caring only dreamed of in the past.
Westside German Shepherd Rescue is about more than just adoptions. It's a center of knowledge, research, education, and training. The community/meeting room is a dynamic public forum hosting seminars, lectures, workshops and lots of engaging events. With a touch of a button the windows electronically darken and a ten foot screen and high definition digital projector lower from the ceiling, all being connected to the lecturer’s podium. Housed in the same area is the canine public library with 500 plus books and a 100 plus DVD’s on every topic imaginable in one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind to be found anywhere.
Gallery Boardwalk Past the front lobby area is a gallery that is design to resemble an outdoor boardwalk. There are L.E.D. lights placed behind a translucent stretched ceiling membrane that help reinforce this idea and make it appear as if it there is a real sky above. The kennel rooms line the edges of this boardwalk as a series of separate ‘cabanas.' This isn't your typical shelter, kennel, or rescue.
The Training Yard There is also over 2,000 sq. ft. of dedicated space for play, socialization and training as well as a special area for housebroken dogs to maintain their routines. In this area, is where the comprehensive multi-staged behavioral evaluations are done to create the all-important profiles central to help adopters find their perfect match.
The training yard is located at the end of the Gallery Boardwalk. Large doors connect the space to the back of the property, used every day for exercising the dogs and on Saturdays for adoption events.
