health & wellness center

The Health, Safety & Wellness Facility at UMass Dartmouth is envisioned as a unified student & community centered resource that brings together campus police, health services, counseling and services within a single purpose built environment. By co-locating these essential functions, the project supports a holistic approach to safety, wellness, and student support reducing barriers to access while fostering collaboration among departments that collectively serve the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the campus community.

Early in the design process, the project team prioritized an inclusive and collaborative planning approach, engaging university leadership, public safety staff, health professionals, and other key stakeholders through a structured series of workshops. This process allowed the design to be shaped directly by operational needs, adjacencies, and user experience, creating a facility that balances openness and approachability with privacy, security, and dignity. The approximately 32,000 square foot facility is planned to operate continuously with resilient infrastructure to provide uninterrupted service. The building is carefully sited to respond to existing campus network, landscape and ecological conditions to strengthen connections to surrounding pathways and open spaces while minimizing site disturbance.

Together, these strategies establish a durable and forward looking campus asset, one that promotes wellness, and reflects the university’s commitment to a safe, supportive, healthy, and environmentally responsible learning environment.