Friendship Circle

Life Skills Training Facility

Incorporating Experiential Elements

Friendship Circle is a state-of-the-art facility for children with special needs. The 22,000 square foot building’s purpose is to provide an experiential space for life skills training and counseling. The facility at Friendship Circle features a gymnasium, a 22-seat movie theater, and a specialized learning space. The focused learning environment, Lifetown, is a life-size simulation of community locations such as a bank, dentist’s office, doctor’s office, movie theater, drug store, library, park, and hair salon aimed at encouraging comfortable communication and interaction in these social situations. Lifetown also includes interactive roads and sidewalks equipped with traffic lights, parking meters, and other features that are encountered in daily life.

This project contained a high level of team member collaboration throughout all phases of the project: preconstruction and planning, construction, and closeout with a constant focus on the end-user group.

In a facility like this, design and construction must maintain focus on the experiential elements and end function of the space. Everything from ensuring correct installation of equipment, to lighting, to finishes material selected for both learning and exposure purposes, it all serves a specific purpose that must be achieved in the completed product.

Upon completion, this project was received with immense support and positivity from the community.