Downtown Clinic receives major — and attractive — transformation

The new lookof the United Neighborhood Health Services Downtown Clinic — everything from the materials used to the color schemes to the lighting — is meant to be calm and soothing. It should be, given that its patients have lives that are anything but.

“Life on the streets is traumatic,” said Bill Friskics-Warren, UNHS director of homeless services, when asked about the concepts to transform the facility from an outdated and even depressing space to one that is pleasant and functional. 

Nashville-based Smith Gee Studio handled design work for the clinic, which just reopened and joins another updated member of its neighborhood, Room In the Inn. 

“Transformation is probably a better word than renovation to describe the changes the Downtown Clinic has undergone,” Friskics-Warren said. “The space has been completely reconfigured to improve not just patient care, but the entire patient experience — comfort, aesthetics, etc. — as well.”  >read more<

Kara Gee, interviewed in Nashville Opera’s Curtain Call. Read the full interview here.