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A health care facility doesn’t necessarily have to look like one.

That was the approach taken by the Clark/Kjos Architects team that designed a new Health and Wellness Clinic for nonprofit Outside In near the border between Portland and Gresham. Colorful artwork was chosen to highlight the exterior of the structure that Walsh Construction is building on a quarter-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Southeast 162nd Avenue and Burnside Street, in the Rosewood neighborhood.

The single-story building was designed to embrace visitors as much as possible.

鈥淚 think the main goal is to make it noninstitutional and make it appeal to the Outside In clientele,鈥� said Scot Jahn, a project architect with Clark/Kjos Architects. 鈥淲e really wanted it to have some ties to the existing (Outside In) building downtown, so the color of the stucco is going to match the red on the steel there and the art screen is being done by the same artist. We wanted to do it in a different way, but have the same elements on the building.鈥�

Building design is very important for interaction with Outside In clients, said Tess Anawalt, a major gift officer with the nonprofit.

鈥淭hat was one of the things we worked really closely with (architects) on,鈥� she said. 鈥淥utside In has 50 years of experience providing services to folks who traditionally don’t feel as welcome or who have experienced trauma, so for us it’s really important to create this welcoming space that really doesn’t feel like every other clinic.鈥�

Color plays a significant role in achieving that goal, Anawalt said.

鈥淭hen there’s the art and having the space really covered in art and those artistic screens, so it really feels like a part of this community,鈥� she said.

It’s a sizable step away from an institutional look and feel, Anawalt added.

鈥淭here are a lot more smaller corridors and hallways, so it feels different for folks entering these spaces,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd a lot of it is the dressing afterward. Just having a fish tank in the lobby increases the success rate for clients coming in, so there are little things like that.鈥�

Construction is ongoing. Wood framing wrapped up last month, and then crews began working on the dry-in of the flat roof.

鈥淎 little bit of the site work for the fire supply is getting backfilled right now,鈥� Walsh Construction superintendent Duane Sterns said last month, 鈥渁nd we’re trying to dry in the exterior of the building with the weather-resistant barrier system.鈥�

By the end of March, the framing support system for the building’s prefabricated exterior wall panels will arrive for installation. Manufactured by Portland firm Acculign Framing, the wall panels will include stone cladding sourced from Spain.

鈥淚t should take roughly five days to install the frame system and another five days to install the panels,鈥� Sterns said.

This will be the first time that Sterns’ crew handles an Acculign system.

鈥淭here’s a learning curve there, but the engineering on it is pretty drastic for this type of system,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f it was a multistory with concrete walls, it would go on a lot quicker. But with this being wood-framed, we had to add some stuff in there that we didn’t anticipate.鈥�

Crews completed a mock-up and visited the Acculign factory for installation training. Initial installation and waterproofing around the building parapet are expected to be challenging.

鈥淚t’s pretty user-friendly right now,鈥� Sterns said. 鈥淲e’ll see a lot of cladding going up on the building and we’ll start to get it closed in.鈥�