San Francisco Opens a Psychiatric Center Without Stigma

STOP THE MADNESS –

June 27, 2022 – The five-story, 150,000-square-foot building represents a visible departure from older psychiatric facilities that are located in secluded places with obscured facades.

“We wanted to design a building that defied outdated psychiatric institutional models that separated mental from physical health and perpetuated a culture of shame,” said Dr. Matthew State, UCSF professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Situated adjacent to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, the new building’s central location, light-filled atrium, and interior transparency were chosen and designed to convey openness to the community outside. “We created a place with welcoming entrances and engaging gathering spaces that will draw in patients and families. It will give them access to light and nature, integrate physical and mental health services, and allow them to focus on healing in a low-stress environment,” State said.

The Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building is the culmination of a vision for bringing together physical and mental health. It promotes collaborative research across psychiatry, psychology, neurology, neurosurgery, radiology, pediatrics, anesthesiology and obstetrics/gynecology — all under one roof.

The building, located at 675 18th St., was made possible by a gift of nearly $60 million from philanthropists John Pritzker and Lisa Pritzker, longtime supporters of UCSF. It is named in honor of John Pritzker’s sister, Nancy Friend Pritzker, who died by suicide at age 24 during a depressive episode in 1972.