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
Building Team Awards | Apr 10, 2015
Virtual collaboration helps complete a hospital in 24 months
PinnacleHealth needed a new hospital STAT! This team delivered it in two years, start to finish.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Big D’s billion-dollar baby: New Parkland Hospital Tops the Chart | BD+C
Dallas’s new $1.27 billion public hospital preserves an important civic anchor, Texas-style.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
‘Prudent, not opulent’ sets the tone for this Catholic hospital
This Building Team stuck with a project for seven years to get a new hospital built for a faithful client.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 8, 2015
Designing for behavioral health: Balancing privacy and safety
Gensler's Jamie Huffcut discusses mental health in the U.S. and how design can affect behavioral health.
Building Team Awards | Apr 5, 2015
‘Project first’ philosophy shows team’s commitment to a true IPD on the San Carlos Center
Skanska and NBBJ join forces with Sutter Health on a medical center project where all three parties share the risk.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 31, 2015
BIM and the changing procurement model for medical equipment in healthcare construction
BIM coordination has dramatically reduced change orders during the construction period. Unfortunately, it has had the opposite effect on medical technology integration, writes CBRE Healthcare's Julie Ford.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 28, 2015
VA construction program ‘a disaster,’ says congressman
The VA construction program took more hits recently after the chairman of a congressional Committee on Veterans’ Affairs called an Aurora, Colo., hospital project “a disaster,” and a key VA official resigned abruptly.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 23, 2015
Can advanced elevator technology take vertical hospitals to the next level?
VOA's Douglas King recalls the Odyssey project and ponders vertical transportation in high-rise healthcare design.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 22, 2015
New Joplin, Mo., hospital built to tornado-resistant standards
The new hospital features a window and frame system that can protect patients from winds of up to 250 mph.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 19, 2015
Grumman/Butkus Associates releases 2014 hospital energy and water benchmarking survey results
The survey results show that hospitals’ overall fossil fuel use has trended downward, but electricity use isn’t declining much.