Part of the Los Angeles City Animal Bond Program, the 48,000 sf, Type II-B, $12.1 million East Valley Animal Services Center contains more than 100 outdoor dog kennels, around 20 indoor kennels, cat cages, small animal cages, an aviary, a medical/operating area, space for a stand alone spay neuter clinic, and staff support offices. Outdoor spaces including an aviary, a water feature, an animal training yard, and multiple gardens of different sizes and planting schemes are integrated with the building volumes into a comprehensive whole. As a precautionary budgetary measure, at the Owner’s request, the project was redesigned 3 separate times. The initial (Scheme I) building design won a 2003 LA City Cultural Affairs Commission Design Award for Architectural Excellence.

Instead of the typical relentless rows of undifferentiated cages, the outdoor kennels are arranged around four identifiable features: a fountain, an aviary, a Get Aquainted yard, and a landscaped small animal garden. This organization enhances wayfinding and breaks down the potentially overwhelming number of kennels into a more humane scale.

A few years after opening, a second, tenant improvement, phase, building out a 2,850 sf, $400,000, spay neuter clinic within the original building envelope, was completed.