HGA has been selected to lead the architecture, interior design and construction administration efforts for the newest Hattie’s House location in Sacramento, California, adjacent to the notable Sutter Medical Center. Projected to open at end of 2024, the facility will support the not-for-profit organization’s mission to provide a home away from home for families and patients receiving care at Sutter Medical Center. Hattie’s House covers the cost of their stay providing fully furnished apartments. The HGA-designed facility will mark the second apartment location for Hattie’s House in Sacramento, Hattie’s House also provides temporary medical housing in San Diego.
The new Hattie’s House location will fill a critical need for, temporary housing for the families and patients of Sutter Medical Center who live more than 50 miles from the treatment facility. Currently, hotel rooms in and around Sacramento average approximately $150 per night, and the average stay at Hattie’s House is between 30 -120 days. This results in significant lodging costs for families and patients, particularly when the alternative is long hours of drive time for appointments and care. Hattie’s House is currently raising the resources necessary to fully fund the new location and bring awareness to this need in the region.
Located in the Old Tavern building at 28th Street and Capitol Avenue—commonly referred to as the Sacramento Brewery—the new Hattie’s House facility will comprise 24 fully furnished apartments that will be provided to families and patients receiving care at Sutter. The iconic Sacramento building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and most recently housed the local staple, Biba Restaurant. HGA’s design will bring new life to the historic, 1870’s-era building through an adaptive reuse conversion that will add the residential components as well as restaurant and marketplace spaces on the lower floors. Commercial spaces will comprise a 4,958-square-foot lower-level basement for potential use as a bar and 13,896 square feet of space for restaurant and marketplace use on the first floor. Hattie’s House will lease the commercial spaces and profits will be used to help offset Hattie’s House operations.
With careful consideration to its history, the iconic building’s dominant Tudor features will be left in place throughout. The building’s interior will be entirely restored and brought up to code, while renovating it for new uses. More than 18,000 square feet of space that currently serves as offices on the second, third and fourth floors will be converted into fully furnished apartments ranging from 200 to 600 square feet per unit, able to house up to four. In an effort to reinforce the notion of “a home away from home,” all apartments will have an open-concept living room area and a fully functioning kitchen. Spacious private bedrooms and bathrooms will provide full accommodations to achieve comfort and quiet time. As places of respite and rejuvenation, the units will be designed to feel welcoming and comfortable with a fresh aesthetic and slight nod toward the classic Tudor style, including rich and warm textures and natural light from the historic bay windows.
Within the complex, six apartments are set to be dedicated to Sutter’s bone marrow transplant department, significantly increasing the capacity of the program that requires local lodging during treatment.
“We’re proud to be a part of this compassionate response to the need for living options for out-of-area loved ones of those receiving care at Sutter Medical Center,” said Heather Kampa, CID, IIDA, EDAC, principal at HGA and the project’s lead. “We know these apartment homes will help to ease the financial, physical and emotional strains that come with extended time in and around hospital environments, and we hope that the design will provide a much-needed sense of place and contribute to the comfort of those who will experience it.”
“At Hattie’s House, we deeply understand the critical role that support networks play in the process of healing. The opportunity for family members to stay with or nearby their loved ones at no cost during active treatment prevents patient isolation and reduces stress for those supporting the patient,” said Andy Albrecht, founder of Hattie’s House.
The new Hattie’s House location is a component of HGA’s long-standing Community Action efforts. HGA’s Sacramento office shares in the firm’s nationwide commitment toward creating positive local impact and is donating more than half of the hours required to ensure the project’s success through its design phases, including working with the City of Sacramento’s planning department to secure necessary approvals.
“It is always an honor for us to leverage our expertise and resources in partnership with nonprofit organizations that bring about good in our local communities, and we know the new Hattie’s House location will do just that,” added Maribel Martinez-Wyatt, interior designer at HGA. “We see it as an investment in people and look forward to the difference it will make for our community and those who will be staying in the Sacramento area for a season.”
In addition to Kampa and Martinez-Wyatt, the HGA project team includes Julian Andrade, principal and architect of record, Andrea Jaggers, project manager; and Joel Chapin, senior project architect. Additional project partners and consultants include Joyner Development Incorporated, developer; JCG Development, owner’s representation; DesCor Builders, general contractor; Urbana Preservation, historic preservation; and ZFA Structural Engineers, structural engineering.
Hattie’s House was founded in 2003 by Andy and Laurie Albrecht after they experienced the death of their 10-month-old daughter, Hattie, to bacterial meningitis. After experiencing first-hand the toll that long, difficult medical journeys take, they made it the organization’s mission to relieve families of the worry of housing by bringing home to them, through furnished apartments in the San Diego area. In 2019, Hattie’s House expanded its service areas to the Sacramento region, through a partnership with Sutter Health.