MHCD Dahlia Campus Wins ENR 2016 Best Project Award!

MHCD Dahlia Campus Wins ENR 2016 Best Project Award!
Mental Health of Denver’s Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-Being has won the ENR Mountain States 2016 Best Project for Health Care Award! Congratulations to the Taylor Kohrs project team and subcontractors, Mental Health Center of Denver, City Projects, Anderson Mason Dale Architects, KL&A Structural Engineers and Builders, Wilson & Company, Inc, MEP Engineering Inc., and Group 14 Engineering. Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-Being is an innovative facility offering so many needed services under one roof and deserves such recognition!

The Mental Health Center of Denver’s Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-Being offers a wide variety of services under one roof that is unlike any other mental health services facility. Services and programs available include infant, early childhood, school-age adolescent and caregiver mental health services, inclusive preschool, pediatric dentistry, parenting classes and support groups, deaf and hard of hearing counseling services, cooking and nutrition classes, fitness classes, gymnasium, community room, urban farm, therapeutic gardens, greenhouse with aquaponics system and outdoor play spaces.

Everything offered at Dahlia Campus is a direct result from community input. A local soup kitchen chef noticed children were only eating soft foods because it hurt their teeth to eat solid foods. MHCD partnered with Kids In Need of Dentistry (KIND) to provide high quality, comprehensive dental treatment for children up to age 18 on campus.

The Northeast Park Hill Community was in a food desert, relying on gas stations to buy groceries. Fresh produce and quality protein was hard to come by. Over an acre of the site is dedicated to the Dahlia
Campus Farm & Flowers which includes a greenhouse with an aquaponics system to grow tilapia and catfish and a farm to grow produce and flowers. The tilapia, catfish and produce all grown and harvested on site are sold at the farm stand donated by Taylor Kohrs.

Dahlia Campus goes beyond the conventional mental health clinic model and is the first innovative development in the nation that focuses on the community and its desires for their health and well-being.

The design of this building reaches out and welcomes the community, by providing an openness, welcoming and inviting presence.