A new training facility for developmentally disabled adults in Ringwood, NJ, approached as an adaptation of a historic barn on the campus of the former Mount Saint Francis Convent. Retaining an existing two-story timber frame, the new facility reinvents the structure into program rooms, common spaces with soaring ceilings, and canopied outdoor patios for protected client activity. While many of the state’s institutions for the developmentally disabled are housed in concrete block facilities, this center in rural Ringwood, NJ is conceived as a New England farmhouse complete with barn and outbuildings. A daytime training center that engages natural landscape in its daily program activities. Serving sixty individuals, the project required a sensitive approach to regulation in the NJ Highlands Council, the NJDEP, and local planning commissions. Acting as both planner and architect, Kimmerle Newman Architects was instrumental in negotiations with NJDEP regarding a development waiver in the Highlands district, which was a critical project service for this nonprofit’s expansion success.
Location
Ringwood, NJ
Year
2015
