The Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building embraces patient-centered design principles and is among the first facilities in the nation to incorporate world-class mental and physical health services, interdisciplinary academics, and pioneering research.

The center is also designed to optimize patient care, drive research across a variety of disciplines and disorders, and destigmatize mental health care through thoughtful design to both remove potential barriers and normalize mental health care. The new building is named in honor of John’s sister, Nancy Friend Pritzker, who died by suicide at age 24 during a depressive episode in 1972.

Located in San Francisco’s burgeoning Dogpatch neighborhood, the center houses both outpatient services and research space, bringing together clinicians and researchers from multiple disciplines to address the most pressing needs in psychiatry, psychology, and related fields.

In addition to providing state-of-the-art services to Bay Area adults and children, the center will pioneer a more holistic approach to mental health that includes prevention and community outreach, the integration of pediatric and adult medicine with psychiatric care, and the development of novel and improved treatments.

The building’s design and sustainable elements support this holistic approach, providing a positive connection to the community that helps normalize behavioral health care. Its human scale connects the building to the street, and the building materials have been purposefully selected to reflect the texture, color, and character of the neighborhood.

A central atrium allows daylight to penetrate deep into the building, maintaining a calming connection to nature, and a new roof deck provides landscaped outdoor space for reflection and celebration. The building’s water system includes integrated storm management, lessening its impact on the environment.

The Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building is the culmination of UCSF’s long-standing vision to integrate physical and mental health, by eliminating arbitrary boundaries that have isolated psychiatry and the behavioral sciences from other medical disciplines that also advance brain health and treat brain disorders.

That vision has led to the creation in the building of a five-story light-filled atrium, rooftop garden accessible to patients and staff, an extensive photographic art program created by groundbreaking artist Richard Misrach, and a community-based youth art program, all designed to convey hope for patients and families and demonstrate UCSF’s integral role in and commitment to the community. This OSHPD 3 building received its first patients in October 2021.