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Of Note
The new Children’s Bereavement Center faces Getty Street in downtown Uvalde.
Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas
Celebrates Opening in Uvalde
by Allison Peitz, AIA
12 Texas Architect
1/2 2024
short supply in this area, particularly for youth
and children.
The Children’s Bereavement Center (CBC)
of South Texas has been a leader in the realm of
mental health services for children for more than
25 years. The organization 昀椀rst began operating
out of the trunk of a car. The trunk was 昀椀lled with
toys, brought to children in di昀케cult situations in
hospitals and homes to provide some reprieve from
anxiety through entertainment. Over time, the
organization grew into a brick-and-mortar facility
in San Antonio that o昀昀ers counseling services and
various forms of therapy geared toward healing
children and families. As of 2022, the CBC had
facilities in San Antonio, Southerland Springs,
and McAllen due to high demand and widespread
need for these services. On May 24, 2022, within
hours of the shooting in Uvalde, the CBC deployed
resources to serve Uvalde and initiated plans to get
a brick-and-mortar facility up and running there
to provide the mental health services that the community now desperately needed.
PHOTO BY TRE DUNHAM
Getty Street in Uvalde is bustling. Families gather
on the street expectantly. It is June 29, 2023, the
day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas — the
昀椀rst facility of its kind in Uvalde as well as in West
Texas. A group of children line up along the stage
carrying a bright blue ribbon while the mayor
shares a hopeful message. The children all have
smiles on their faces as they cut the ribbon together
and the Children’s Bereavement Center is o昀케cially
declared “Open!” The crowd erupts in cheers and
whistles. Finally, Uvalde will have access to muchneeded mental health services and resources, stirring the hope that this community will one day heal.
More than a year has passed since tragedy
struck Uvalde, when a gunman took the lives of
19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary
School. The school has been retired, but members of the community still carry the trauma of
this event. Surrounding cities have provided every
kind of support they can in the aftermath. However, mental health services have always been in
Randy Smith, CEO of the San Antonio development 昀椀rm Weston Urban, and Jonathan Card,
AIA, founding principal Card & Company Architects, were quickly engaged to evaluate potential
sites and develop a concept design for the facility.
Both are committed to the CBC’s mission and purpose and provided their services pro-bono. In collaboration with the CBC, a site was selected at 319
N. Getty St., in the heart of Uvalde’s downtown.
The site and its existing building were donated for
the cause by St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, which
sits on an adjacent lot.
The Uvalde facility is smaller than the CBC’s
other centers, so it was important to leverage
shared resources, such as the church’s fellowship
hall, additional meeting spaces, a playground, and
additional parking. It was also important that the
new facility feel welcoming for everyone, including
those who may not be comfortable in churches.
“What’s really interesting about this site is how it’s
public-facing on Getty Street,” says Jonathan Card.
“It has its own storefront and identity, but it’s also
directly adjacent to a church with a back door to
the church courtyard.”
Once the site was selected, Card and Company
swiftly developed a concept design package to raise
funds for the project. From there, Ford, Powell,
and Carson of San Antonio volunteered to serve
as architect of record. Moving at lightning speed,
FPC turned Card and Company’s concept design
package into a permit set in a single month. Hector
Machado, AIA, the senior associate at FPC who
led the project during this phase, noted, “Everyone
was very pressed to try to get this building open as
quickly as possible.”
Even with the short timeline, the quality of
the future space remained a high priority. Across
CBC’s various centers, the design ethos has always
been to make interior spaces feel inviting, calming, familiar, and secure — like a home away from
home. “In many of their facilities,” says Card, “the
CBC’s design challenge has been to take a commercial space and essentially ‘de-institutionalize’
it using furniture, 昀椀nishes, and lighting that have
a more residential feel.” Counseling spaces in the
new center are designed to feel like living rooms,
and several other activity rooms are designed for
play therapy. All treatment rooms have windows
with access to natural light, which can improve
comfort and mood. Linda Fugit, a board member
and longtime friend of the CBC, has served as
the organization’s de facto interior designer for
decades. “Linda’s contributions are a huge part of
why these centers have a warm, disarming feel that
the center has become known for,” Card explains.