When Marin County patients needed a place to recover close to home, access to recovery care in this region faced major obstacles. With the help of a state grant, a decommissioned fire station offered new hope. Nestled in the lush coastal California landscape of Marin, Rising Recovery Center fills the geographic and financial gap in the region’s behavioral health system as a residential option between crisis intervention and long-term recovery housing for adults with co-occurring substance use and mental health needs. Our adaptive reuse design transformed a former fire station into a functioning residential-care facility, allowing Marin County to add treatment capacity.
Guided by trauma-informed design, the facility features an open kitchen, great room, dining area, natural light, and a landscaped patio to make the center feel welcoming and residential rather than institutional. The design provides patients with stability, support, skill-building, and dignity by transforming a once-practical public building into a safe, recovery-focused environment.
The new 5,000-SF Rising Recovery Center adapts and converts a decommissioned City of San Rafael fire station. It includes a new 15-bed residential addition with a dedicated bedroom wing and shared therapeutic and domestic spaces, designed to balance resident privacy with personal security for group programming. It targets LEED Silver certification through features including rooftop solar panels, high-efficiency HVAC, daylighting, and drought-tolerant landscaping. We provided architecture, planning, programming, and construction phase services.
