CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health plans 'iconic' building

CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health is about to start building its colorful new home that will house the city's first child birth center where midwives are the primary caregivers and the nation's first nonprofit to offer birth care and abortion care under one roof.

"You will not miss the building; it will be iconic,'' assistant director Kathryn Leopard said. "Very noticeable.''

CHOICES applied for a building permit this month for 1203 Poplar, having raised $3.4 million of a $4.2 million capital campaign goal. The site is one mile west of the longtime headquarters the center outgrew at 1726 Poplar.

The nonprofit with more than 20 full-time employees originally intended to renovate and expand an 8,000-square-foot former medical office at 1203 Poplar, across from Moore Tech. But the organization eventually decided the building wasn't big enough and razed it.

Within a few months CHOICES expects to start construction on a two-story, 14,400-square-foot building. General contractor S. Webster Haining & Co. also has been involved in early stages of the project for the facility, which is expected to open in 2019.

A quilt metaphor

Its exterior is meant to convey the physical and emotional warmth of a patterned, Southern quilt.

"We latched on early to the quilt as a powerful metaphor,'' project architect Peter Warren of Warren Architecture said in an email. "... The quilt is an incredibly rich metaphor — simultaneously utilitarian and beautiful.''

Pending final pricing, the top of the building's facade will be trapezoid-shaped, aluminum panels in three shades of green. The bottom part of the building will be polished concrete block.

"The windows are even trapezoidal, which reinforces the sense that the building is wrapped in a quilt,'' Warren said.

The facility will feature "a large welcoming covered entry porch adjacent to the lobby and waiting room — we think of it as an indoor/outdoor patient commons,'' Warren said. "The second floor features an interior courtyard with roof garden. Each of the birth suites will have a view and access to this garden.

"A skylight structure in the courtyard brings light down to the reception desk in the patient commons below.''

The goal for the exterior, interior design and landscaping "has been to create a bright and welcoming facility balanced with privacy and operational considerations,'' Warren said.

The nonprofit also bought the building at 144 N. Bellevue, which is behind the new headquarters. CHOICES midwives are already using 144 N. Bellevue for their practice and have more than 20 patients.

What is CHOICES?

People sometimes are confused about what CHOICES does, especially compared to Planned Parenthood.

In addition to a difference in the range of services provided, Leopard said, think of Planned Parenthood as Starbucks and CHOICES as a local coffeeshop like Otherlands or Java Cabana.

"We're independent, started by feminist women in Memphis in 1974,'' Leopard said.

The two organizations generally do the same thing, "until we add the birthing service and prenatal care,'' Leopard said. "We do a bit more working with the transgender community ... We do a lot of outreach for people with HIV, helping them have safe pregnancies.

"What we're doing is a comprehensive reproductive health model, from fertilization assistance to pap smears to birth control to breast exams, abortion care, prenatal care and birth care and menopause management. Everything along that reproductive health care spectrum.''

In addition, CHOICES serves transgender patients who are managing their hormones with replacement therapy.

"Our patients are just as different as the faces you see walking down the street,'' Leopard said.

The new headquarters also will integrate mental health services with all the physical care. Licensed counselors and social workers will serve patients dealing with everything from postpartum depression to issues often faced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender transgender community.

CHOICES operates from the fees it charges but also receives local and national financial support. Some national organizations have provided substantial support in part because of interest in seeing if the CHOICES model of providing comprehensive services can be replicated elsewhere.

CHOICES has several funds to draw from for patients needing help paying for care.

"We never want anyone to leave without having service because they can't pay,'' Leopard said.

CHOICES will sell its current office at 1726 Poplar.