One of the largest providers of humanitarian medical aid in the world has a microgrid system powering its new space, which is larger, earthquake-safe, and boasts state-of-the-art distribution technology for medical supplies.
Direct Relief’s Santa Barbara-based headquarters and distribution center is operating out of a new facility that’s nearly four times the size of its previous space in Goleta.
The 155,000-square-foot building, headquartered at 6100 Wallace Becknell Road, will help the humanitarian aid organization keep pace with the increasing demand for its services. The project, designed by DMHA Architecture + Interior Design in Santa Barbara, broke ground in 2016 and cost $40 million.
“You hear about people trying to find projects where they find a win-win,” Direct Relief board chair Mark Schwartz said. “This Direct Relief building project was a win-win-win-win.”
Direct Relief had some major obstacles about six years ago, Schwartz said.
“We had outgrown our facilities, and we were missing out on some major opportunities from our pharmaceutical partners who wanted to donate more medicines,” he said. “Our second problem was the regulations were increasing and we were at risk of eventually losing our certification to store medicines because of some of the limitations of our old warehouse.”
The organization is the only nationally-accredited wholesale distributor of prescription medicine in the United States. It has a worldwide reach, providing essential medical resources to help people affected by poverty or emergency situations.
Direct Relief also plays a critical role in Santa Barbara County emergency response, including storing all of the “emergency medicines and medical supplies for the citizens of Santa Barbara,” said Schwartz.
The new facility will allow Direct Relief to “do more good in the world,” he said.
Recently, the organization started the Life for a Child program supplying more insulin to children with Type 1 Diabetes, and Amgen donated about $100 million worth of cancer medicines, which patients will access through Direct Relief-partner clinics and hospitals.
“These are two great programs that we wouldn’t have done at our old facility,” Schwartz said. “We are just getting started.”
Direct Relief staff, board members, elected officials, and supporters celebrated the building with a dedicatation ceremony and tour Thursday.
The office building is named in honor of Virgil Elings, a former UC Santa Barbara physics professor and philanthropist who donated $5.1 million to the project.
The nonprofit partnered with Tesla to install micro-grid power systems with solar panels integrated with battery storage and generators at its headquarters to keep it running in case of a disaster, Direct Relief board member Mark Linehan said.
“In the past, we just had a generator, and it gave us about a week supply if things were bad,” Linehan said. “Today, we can stretch the week supply to six months off the grid.”
Power is essential because Direct Relief’s cold storage room is used to house insulin, vaccines, and other medications that are temperature-sensitive.
“A lot of what we do is deliver drugs that have to be in cold storage,” Linehan said. “And when you don’t have power, you can’t have cold storage.”
Tall shelves packed nearly to the ceiling with medical supplies fill the organization’s global distribution center.
On Thursday, employees were sorting supplies inside the main warehouse, which is decorated with flags from around the world.
A display case of Direct Relief’s certifications and licenses authorizing the distribution of pharmaceuticals to all 50 United States stands out when people enter the building from the ground floor.
“These licenses here feel like it’s our trophy room,” said Gregory Mora, Direct Relief’s individual philanthropy manager, during a tour. “Just the same way that a doctor or lawyer can practice law or medicine outside of the state that they have been certified in — same goes for distribution of pharmaceutical medicines.”
In the hallways, photos on the walls shows shipments to Ebola-hit regions, volunteers sorting items, and a group of all-female volunteer pilots airlifting medical supplies.
Also among the handful of photographs are the organization’s founders — William Zimdin, an Estonian immigrant who fled World War II to the United States in the 1940s, and Hungarian-born Dezso Karczag, who fled from the Nazis to Santa Barbara and assumed management of Direct Relief after Zimdin’s death in 1951.
Direct Relief provided medical aid to recipients in 100 countries in 2018, communications director Tony Morain said.
Morain said it delivered aid shipments to Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Philippines, Romania, Senegal, Ukraine, and 37 states in the United States from its facility during the week of Jan. 21.
“We have gone from antibiotics to insulin to cancer drugs,” said Direct Relief board member Dorothy Largay. “Can you imagine the difference we are making?”
Courtney Jane Miller/CJM::LA were the landscape architects for the project, and ARCO Design-Build was the general contractor.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
