Architecture for the homeless.

• Author: Law, Violet

ARCHITECT RAFI ELBAZ HAS some new clients: the denizen drifters of the Bowery. When Elbaz decided to enter into a competition to redesign the interior of a homeless shelter on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he thought it would be easy.

"I thought they would have no requirements (because) some of them lived in cardboard boxes," says Elbaz. How wrong he was: He soon found them to be some of the most forceful and intelligent clients he's ever had.

Like Elbaz, more and more architects are taking up the challenge of creating well-designed shelters for the homeless. For far too long, many shelters have been converted from abandoned or underused buildings, such as armories, trailers, or industrial buildings, with little concern for comfort. The deplorable condition in some has repulsed even those most desperate for a roof above their heads.

That's where some forward-looking architects are coming in.

"There has always been a social consciousness to many architects. The homelessness problem has become so acute that it's on everybody's radar," says Sam Davis, a Berkeley-based architect and author of Designing for the Homeless: Architecture That Works.

No architect pretends that good design alone is the solution to the problem of chronic homelessness. However, many who have signed on to new homeless shelter projects are motivated by the belief that by creating a dignified housing environment they will help ease the transition of those hardened by street life. The program for which Elbaz designed is called First Step Housing, operated by the New York City-based Common Ground Community. It prepares formerly homeless people for permanent housing.

Elbaz solicited advice from current residents of the Andrews, the Lower East Side shelter. He asked questions on what may seem like minute design details, such as how much shelf space they'd need and what kind of partitions they would like to see. The idea, he said, was "to give them a sense of creating their own space and to get them acquainted with a sense of home."

"We gave our input," says Kenneth Ryan, a formerly homeless man who has lived in the Andrews for eight years. Ryan says Elbaz was interested in their ideas. Elbaz proposed more shelf space than they thought would be necessary; so he scaled back. "We need some shelves, but we don't need shelves for 10,000 books!" Ryan says he told Elbaz.

The redesign of the Andrews involves renovating a longstanding shelter. Construction of new homeless shelters...