Over the past six years, SmithGroup has been working with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (IFHF) to design and build satellites to the 72,000-sf National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) in Bethesda, Md., which since 2010 has treated traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders suffered by active-duty military personnel.
To date, seven NICoE Spirit satellite centers—which average 25,000 sf and between $10 million and $12 million in construction costs—have been built on the grounds of Fort Belvoir in Virginia, Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Hood in Texas, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, and Camp Pendleton in California.
Philip Tobey, a Senior Vice President at SmithGroup, says one other NICoE Spirit in design and two others await funding.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is led by Arnold Fisher, a Senior Partner with Fisher Brothers, a real estate developer and builder in New York. Originally, he formed the fund to supplement the paltry ($6,000) benefits the government had been paying families of military personnel killed in action. When the government raised its payout to $100,000 per family, IFHF approached the Army Surgeon General to see what else it could do to help active duty military.
See Also: Medical office construction isn’t keeping pace with the aging of America
At that time (2005), 23,000 troops had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, 10,000 of whom sustained injuries that prevented them from returning to duty.
The fund, says Fisher, raised $72 million for the Center for the Intrepid, a 65,000-sf rehabilitation training and research center on five acres at Brooke Army Medical Center near Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. IFHF was instrumental in assembling the project team for this project, which included SmithGroup (design architect), Syska Hennessy Group (engineering systems design), Cagley & Associates (SE), Garcia & Wright Consulting Engineers (CE), Counsilman Hunsaker (natatorium consultant), Plaza Construction (owner’s rep), and Skanska USA (CM).
IFHF subsequently raised $92 million to build NICoE, which opened on the campus of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., The facility has $26 million of imaging equipment, which places it "seven or eight years ahead of civilian research,” says the 85-year-old Fisher.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund donates the healthcare facilities it builds to the U.S. Department of Defense. Its only stipulation is that it have complete autonomy in managing the projects, which allows it to accelerate the production schedule. The Center for the Intrepid was designed and built in 18 months, and the NICoE Spirits are being completed in 14 months.
Fisher says that speed is of the essence to meet the pressing needs of physically and psychologically damaged troops. “I’m a builder, and I push to get projects done,” he explains. Fisher notes that SmithGroup has been the “perfect partner” because “they understand what we need and the importance of the look of the building” to a patient’s recovery.
Related Stories
University Buildings | Jul 1, 2021
Texas A&M University’s new Engineering Medicine program receives a new, unique space
EYP designed the project.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 29, 2021
New Flagler Health+ Campus breaks ground in Durbin Park
Gresham Smith designed the project.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 25, 2021
Hospital serving New Hampshire’s largest metro is expanding its ED
A pandemic delay led the design-build team to rethink the addition’s reception, waiting, and triage areas.
Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021
Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]
New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 10, 2021
Abrazo Cave Creek Hospital completes in Cave Creek, Ariz.
E4H Architecture designed the project.
Digital Twin | May 24, 2021
Digital twin’s value propositions for the built environment, explained
Ernst & Young’s white paper makes its cases for the technology’s myriad benefits.
Healthcare Facilities | May 20, 2021
California Veteran Home, Skilled Nursing Facility and Memory Care project set for Yountville, Calif.
A team of Rudolph and Sletten and CannonDesign will design and build the facility.
Market Data | May 18, 2021
Grumman|Butkus Associates publishes 2020 edition of Hospital Benchmarking Survey
The report examines electricity, fossil fuel, water/sewer, and carbon footprint.
Healthcare Facilities | May 12, 2021
New pet ER under construction in Vancouver, Wash.
The project will serve the Portland metro area 24 hours a day.
Healthcare Facilities | May 7, 2021
Private practice: Designing healthcare spaces that promote patient privacy
If a facility violates HIPAA rules, the penalty can be costly to both their reputation and wallet, with fines up to $250,000 depending on the severity.