Article in Brief

• A new point of access for crisis care: The Judge Guy Herman Center was developed to provide adults experiencing a mental health crisis with short-term psychiatric stabilization, assessment and treatment in a dedicated setting.
• Supporting first responders and emergency healthcare: By creating an alternative destination for appropriate patients, the center expanded the options available to law enforcement, emergency departments and other crisis-care providers in Travis County.
• Built through community collaboration: Integral Care, Central Health, St. David’s Foundation and other local stakeholders worked together to address a longstanding gap in the region’s behavioral healthcare system.

When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, where they receive care matters.

For years, Travis County first responders and healthcare providers had limited options for people needing immediate psychiatric support. The Judge Guy Herman Center for Mental Health Crisis Care in Austin was created to provide another path: a dedicated environment where adults in crisis can receive short-term stabilization, assessment and treatment.

Bartlett Cocke General Contractors worked with Austin Travis County Integral Care and Duke Garwood Architects to construct the approximately 12,000-square-foot facility, creating a secure, supportive residential environment designed specifically around behavioral health crisis care.

Filling a Gap Between Crisis and Inpatient Care

The Judge Guy Herman Center was developed in response to a challenge that extended well beyond the building itself.

Historically, individuals experiencing mental health crises in Travis County were often taken to hospital emergency departments, inpatient psychiatric facilities or, in some circumstances, jail. Not every crisis requires those settings.

The Herman Center created another point in the continuum of care.

Operated by Integral Care, the center provides short-term emergency psychiatric crisis services for adults. Care includes crisis assessment and stabilization, extended observation, medication, individual and group therapy, nursing services, case management, peer support, discharge planning and connections to ongoing care and community resources.

For appropriate patients, that means receiving care in an environment specifically designed around behavioral health rather than a conventional emergency department or correctional setting.

Supporting Austin’s First Responders and Emergency Healthcare System

The center was also designed to support the people responding to mental health crises throughout the community.

Primary referrals to the Herman Center come from law enforcement, healthcare providers such as local emergency departments, and other Integral Care crisis services. The facility does not operate as a walk-in clinic.

That distinction is important to the role the building plays.

Instead of asking every part of the healthcare and public-safety system to respond to psychiatric crises in the same way, the Herman Center provides an additional destination for people whose needs align with short-term psychiatric crisis care.

For first responders and emergency healthcare professionals, having an appropriate point of access can help connect an individual with specialized care while reducing reliance on settings that may not be the best match for that person’s immediate needs.

A Different Environment for Behavioral Health Crisis Care

Behavioral health facilities introduce design and construction considerations that differ from many other healthcare environments.

The building must support clinical care and staff operations while also providing a setting that is safe, secure and appropriate for people experiencing significant distress.

At the Judge Guy Herman Center, the goal was a protected residential environment rather than an institutional one.

That balance has practical implications for construction. Materials, fixtures, visibility, access control, patient circulation, staff circulation and building systems all need to work together. Decisions that might be routine in another building type can carry additional significance in a behavioral health environment.

For builders, understanding the intended model of care is therefore essential. Constructing the space correctly requires understanding how patients and staff will actually use it.

A Community Solution Built Through Collaboration

The Herman Center also demonstrates how complex community healthcare needs can require collaboration among organizations with different roles.

The need for enhanced psychiatric crisis services had been studied by local stakeholders for years before construction began. Integral Care, Central Health, St. David’s Foundation, Seton Healthcare Family, law enforcement, local judges and mental health professionals participated in the broader effort to identify gaps in Travis County’s crisis-care system.

St. David’s Foundation provided nearly $9 million toward the project, while Central Health made the site available through a long-term lease. Integral Care operates the center and raised additional public and private funding.

The facility opened in 2017 after more than a decade of community discussion and planning.

That history illustrates an important point for public and institutional owners: sometimes the most consequential facility decisions begin with identifying what is missing from the system, not determining how many square feet to build.

Construction Supporting a Specialized Mission

At approximately 12,000 square feet, the Judge Guy Herman Center is modest in size compared with a major hospital.

Its construction requirements, however, were highly specialized.

Bartlett Cocke worked with Duke Garwood Architects to translate the behavioral health program into a functional residential crisis-care environment. The project required coordination across the disciplines typical of healthcare construction while accounting for the security, durability and operational requirements of a psychiatric care setting.

The completed project received an Austin Chapter AGC Outstanding Construction Award, recognizing the construction team’s work on the specialized facility.

But the more lasting measure of the project is the role the building continues to play within Travis County’s behavioral health system.

What Healthcare Owners Can Take From the Herman Center

The Judge Guy Herman Center offers a useful lesson for organizations planning behavioral health facilities: start with the gap in care, then design the facility around the response.

In this case, the need was not simply for additional healthcare square footage. Travis County needed another option for adults experiencing psychiatric crises and for the first responders and healthcare providers trying to connect them with appropriate care.

That led to a different kind of facility: residential rather than hospital-like, secure without losing its therapeutic purpose, and connected to a broader network of crisis and ongoing behavioral health services.

For owners and project teams, understanding those operational relationships early can influence everything from programming and circulation to security and building systems.

The Judge Guy Herman Center demonstrates how a relatively small, highly specialized facility can fill an important role in a much larger community healthcare system.