A New Vision for Santa Barbara Humane
At DMHA, our mission as architects and designers is to bring our clients’ unique visions to life. By aligning client goals with our firm’s expertise, we pursue excellence in design as one collaborative team.
For the past four years, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with Santa Barbara Humane, one of the oldest animal welfare organizations in the country. This local nonprofit provides affordable veterinary care, humane dog training, pet adoption, and animal rehoming services. Through everything they do, their vision remains clear: to be champions for animals and the people who love them.
Reimagining a Historic Campus
To continue delivering exemplary care, Santa Barbara Humane’s 60-year-old facilities required a complete transformation. Partnering with DMHA, the goal was to create a model campus for Socially Conscious Sheltering, a framework prioritizing the best outcomes for homeless pets by aligning with community needs, providing comprehensive care, and supporting the human-animal bond.
Our design process focused on the animals’ perspective and prioritized their experience, while ensuring the new facilities were sustainable and redesigned with operational efficiency. The new master plan replaces outdated facilities with over 40,000 square feet of state-of-the-art spaces for animal care, adoption, and community engagement, all while respecting the site’s historical context and ecological setting.
Biophilic Design & Environmental Stewardship
With animal welfare as the guiding principle, the new campus integrates biophilic design, connecting animals, staff, and visitors with nature to promote calm and wellness. Inspired by the site’s setting within the Goleta Slough watershed and historic Chumash lands, the design celebrates the landscape through native planting, habitat restoration, and water-sensitive design.
Curving pathways and open-air corridors invite a natural journey through the site, blurring boundaries between indoors and outdoors. Daylight, natural ventilation, and framed views of the surrounding landscape offer soothing sensory experiences. Organic materials, wave-like rooflines, and coastal color palettes echo the rhythms of Santa Barbara’s environment.
Sustainability and resilience are at the heart of the design. The all-electric campus employs high-performance systems, including heat pumps for space and water heating, optimized daylighting, and robust shading strategies to reduce energy demand. Photovoltaic panels paired with battery storage strengthen resiliency and pave the way toward net-zero energy. Water conservation measures include low-flow fixtures, greywater recycling for irrigation, and stormwater systems that replenish local groundwater.
Together, these strategies embody Santa Barbara Humane’s mission: creating a place where architecture, nature, and compassion unite in service of both animals and the people who care for them.
Honoring History: The Beck House
A cherished part of the campus, the historic Beck House was carefully preserved and relocated to a serene setting that evokes its original orchard environment. Non-historic additions were removed, and the structure was restored in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, allowing the building to stand in respectful contrast to the new contemporary facilities.
Now adaptively reused, the Beck House provides a calm, home-like space to help animals acclimate to domestic environments. Interpretive signage and sightlines from the campus and Overpass Road celebrate its historical significance—preserving Goleta’s architectural heritage as a living part of the Humane Society’s story.
Enhancing Functionality for Exceptional Care
The campus redesign improves the flow of care, replacing scattered, aging structures with purpose-built facilities that support each stage of an animal’s journey—from intake and treatment to behavior assessment and adoption. Logical adjacencies minimize stress and unnecessary movement, while clear pathways and defined zones improve biosecurity and staff efficiency.
Visitors now experience a welcoming, intuitive environment, featuring dedicated spaces for education, community engagement, and adoption. This creates a more connected and uplifting experience for everyone on site.
Looking Ahead
The revitalized Santa Barbara Humane campus balances innovation, sustainability, and historical respect, resulting in a functional, compassionate, and inspiring environment.
Phase One, which broke ground in August 2025, includes a new Intake Building, Dog Behavior Center, Mobile Veterinary Clinic, and upgraded dog yards. Phase Two, scheduled to begin in the winter of 2026, adds a larger Medical Center that will collaborate with local veterinarians and provide free care for both law enforcement and search and rescue canines.
Join Us in Supporting Santa Barbara Humane
Beyond the project itself, DMHA has been honored to support Santa Barbara Humane in more ways than one. We had the joy of being a Gold Sponsor at this year’s Glitter Paw Disco, which brought the community together for a funky, groovy evening that raised critical funds for pets in need.
If you’d also like to support Santa Barbara Humane’s mission, click the link below to learn about how you can get involved and make a difference.