Rancho Santa Fe Helen Woodward Animal Center almost ready to open new building

The Helen Woodward Animal Center will open its new administration building and vet hospital in January.

The Helen Woodward Animal Center has been finding homes for animals for nearly 40 years and in January a part of its own new home will be complete. Construction is almost finished on the center’s new administration building and vet hospital at the back of its property off El Apajo Road.
Employees are expected to move into the new administration building digs on Jan. 10. Rancho Santa Fe Veterinary Hospital, in the building next door, will also move into its new hospital, allowing its former space to be converted to new kennels for the adoption program, phase two of the center’s expansion project.

Additionally, as phase one comes to an end, the center’s therapeutic riding program will return to the grounds. The horses were moved during construction so that the animals and riders in the program were not disturbed by construction commotion.

Mike Kelly, vice president of operations for Starrett Construction, showed off the almost-finished new facility in a walk-through last Friday, Dec. 10, along with center spokesman John Van Zante.

An oft-told joke about the administrative staff’s current building is that it would fall apart if the termites stopped holding hands, Van Zante said. Although cozy, staffers are cramped in the aging building—it was built in 1986 and never meant to house as much work as they do now.
“The area has really grown up all around us,” Van Zante said. “Really, what we’re doing is expanding and improving the facility to keep up with the growth of the neighborhood.”

Now there will be 15 separate offices, several conference rooms and an audio-video room, which Van Zante said the staff is really looking forward to as much of their website, video and social media work now has to be done off-site. The large conference room will be great for the Animal Center Education Services program, which instructs centers from around the world on successful animal center methods. Previously, it took a lot of furniture re-arranging to make room, now there is plenty of space.

The walls of the new facility are all painted shades of green and several rooms have solar tubes, which let in natural light from the roof.
“It’s a nice building but it’s functional,” Van Zante said. “It’s not like we put in all the bells and whistles. It’s a functional facility that allows us to continue to grow with the community and meet our day-to-day needs.”

In the animal hospital side, there are several treatment rooms and surgery rooms, as well as spacious dog runs—much larger than the current space.

Phase one cost about $12 million, much of it from donations. A portion of the expense includes architecture, licensing, and permits for the entire project.
“Fundraising for nonprofit organizations, including the Helen Woodward Animal Center, has been very difficult during this past year,” said President Mike Arms. “Families have been very concerned about the state of the economy. Fortunately, animal lovers have seen how important it is to support the center and maintain its presence in the community that continues to grow around us,”

Arms thanked the people who have helped Helen Woodward continue to save lives of orphaned animals and to provide humane education to children. As Helen Woodward is currently seeking funds to build phase 2, which will cost about $10 million, Arms said many naming opportunities are still available to donors.
Find out more by visiting www.animalcenter.org.

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Posted by Lorine Wright on Dec 16 2010. Filed under Featured Story, News, Rancho Santa Fe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry