The Recovery of St. James: The Journey to Wholeness for the Broken and Addicted
Abstract
In the City of Butte, Montana, a rough and economically
depressed area, the first hospital of the region now sits in
ruin. The Old St. James Hospital will be taken from its current damaged state and transformed into a space that may house
and heal a community. The renovation of the building will
contribute to a program of recovery, in the same way the patient is transformed.
The addict, a modern leper, abandoned by society, will inhabit
peeling fragments and broken edifices within the St. James.
Memories embodied in the old along with the new renovation
will wrap the addict in a reassembly, a recognition of the
broken and the whole. Following many historic precedents that express humans desire for wholeness, the journey through
the facility will allow each resident to reflect on previous self,
heal the current self, and strive for a better future self.