Construction equipment sits idle at the site of the former Lawrence VFW, 138 Alabama St., Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center has designated the site as the home of a proposed Douglas County crisis intervention center.

As he reviewed public suggestions Wednesday for the design of a mental health crisis intervention center, Mike Treanor repeatedly stated “good idea.”

The Treanor Architects principal’s comments were made at a luncheon Wednesday that concluded a two-day charrette, or stakeholders gathering, that his firm and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center hosted as a way to collect community input on the design of a crisis intervention center.

Community members provided suggestions on whiteboards during a seven-hour come-and-go session Tuesday.

The center would provide a local facility where those experiencing a mental health crisis could stay and receive treatment overnight or for a more extended period. Currently, there are no such beds available in the county, and they are becoming more difficult to find in the area.

At the Tuesday charrette session, visitors could pick images from computers of other buildings or features they found appropriate for a crisis center, draw floor plans, list components they would like to see included and identify goals and concerns.

The top suggestion from that effort was that the building be “the best crisis center in the country.”

“That is our goal,” Treanor said. “This is a good step in ensuring we realize that interest.”

Several trends were noticeable on the whiteboards, and they became more pronounced when Treanor asked the approximately 30 community members, Bert Nash employees and county staffers in attendance to vote for the suggestions most important to them.

Favored in the voting was the inclusion of a substance-abuse detox room at the crisis center, space for families and children visiting patients, and a design in which regular maintenance and other required activities produce minimal stress for patients.

The exterior images most favored were of a resort-lodge nature with the additional preference that it reflect its Kansas setting. Those images and floor plans featured abundant natural light and use of indoor-outdoor space.

Treanor and Dan Rowe, Treanor Architects president, said those elements were planned for the crisis center because of their proven therapeutic value. Other suggestions of note were the need for public transportation at the site, safety assurances such as a metal detector to prevent weapons from entering the facility and the possibility of closing Second Street between Bert Nash’s headquarters in the Community Heath Facility and the future crisis center to the north.

As proposed, the crisis center would be built where the old VFW lodge now stands south of Sandra J. Shaw Community Health Park. Just to the west of the site is a Lawrence school district maintenance yard. Rowe said Douglas County was in discussions about swapping property with the school district to free up use of the yard for crisis center use.

The community will have further opportunity to comment on the crisis center’s design. Rowe said photographs of the whiteboards and a list of suggestions would be posted on Treanor’s and Bert Nash’s websites with an invitation for further public comment.

Another public workshop on the design, at which preliminary floor plan options will be shared, will take place in about a month, Rowe said.

“My hope is the public feels a part of the process and takes ownership of the design,” he said. “That’s how we will get it right.”

Asked how much the crisis center would cost, Rowe said that was still unknown but suggested it would fall into the $6 million to $10 million range.

Some of the suggestions shared at the charrette, such as the detox center, also focused on programming, Douglas County Commission Chairman Jim Flory said. There will be meetings reserved for public comment on programming as crisis center planning moves forward, he said.

The County Commission and Bert Nash have agreed to a memorandum of understanding that has the county funding construction of the crisis center on the land Bert Nash makes available. Flory and his fellow commissioners were committed to moving ahead on the project, Flory said, and commissioners will have a work session in about a month to consider possible financing mechanisms for the crisis center.

“My last day on the Commission is Jan. 9, 2017,” he said. “I want to have all the groundwork in place for this when I leave.”