Seattle’s newest Veterans Affairs facility is green, clean, and patient-focused. Which is, of course, the idea behind this Stantec-designed facility.
The new research building for Seattle Veterans Affairs, a $121.6 million structure with 220,000 sf of space, is meant to help with physical and mental needs of some of the 110,000 veterans availing themselves of the one of the VA’s nine area facilities.
Called the Seattle Veterans Affairs Mental Health and Research Building, the structure is meant to enhance patient care. It provides outpatient mental health care, including dialectical behavior therapy, family and group psychotherapy, medication management, and other services. Dialectical behavioral therapy helps identify and change negative thinking patterns and engenders positive changes in behavior.
Collecting research programs at one location also was the point of the new facility. The move brings together programs in a space designed for each research unit. Members of each unit had input on the design. Now, the fully modern equipment and facilities will enable researchers to expand the limits of medicine in areas such as PTSD, Alzheimer’s Disease, lower limb prosthetic design and engineering, oncology, and suicide prevention.
See Also: New Biomedical Research Center Facility at Northwestern University
Seattle is the VA’s 5th largest program, and its recent facility construction is a structural affirmation of the VA’s promise “to advance change and positively disrupt the way America delivers healthcare.”
Home to a prosthetic lab that includes motion analysis, custom fabrication and fitting capabilities, the new facility means, practically speaking, that patients can be fitted for and receive their prosthetic at the same site. With an eye for energy efficiency, the building was designed to LEED standards.
For those aware of it, the environmentally friendly design could have its own calming effect. The building has natural ventilation, passive systems, solar shading, green roofs, rainwater harvesting, access to public and staff outdoor spaces, and also interior gardens.
Related Stories
| Jul 23, 2014
Holistic care model, regulatory changes make outpatient facilities a high priority [2014 Giants 300 Report]
With the Affordable Care Act still in its infancy, Building Teams are seeing reverberations in the investment decisions of healthcare providers, including new ideas about the types of buildings they are asked to create.
| Jul 23, 2014
Top Healthcare Sector Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Turner, McCarthy, and Skanska USA top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest healthcare contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 23, 2014
Top Healthcare Sector Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
AECOM, Jacobs, and URS Corp. top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest healthcare engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 23, 2014
Top Healthcare Sector Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
HDR, Stantec, and HKS top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest healthcare architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 23, 2014
Architecture Billings Index up nearly a point in June
AIA reported the June ABI score was 53.5, up from a mark of 52.6 in May.
| Jul 21, 2014
Economists ponder uneven recovery, weigh benefits of big infrastructure [2014 Giants 300 Report]
According to expert forecasters, multifamily projects, the Panama Canal expansion, and the petroleum industry’s “shale gale” could be saving graces for commercial AEC firms seeking growth opportunities in an economy that’s provided its share of recent disappointments.
| Jul 20, 2014
IPD contract saves time and money for cancer center [2014 Building Team Awards]
Partners share the risk and reward of extreme collaboration on this LEED Silver project, which relies heavily on Lean principles.
| Jul 18, 2014
Contractors warm up to new technologies, invent new management schemes [2014 Giants 300 Report]
“UAV.” “LATISTA.” “CMST.” If BD+C Giants 300 contractors have anything to say about it, these new terms may someday be as well known as “BIM” or “LEED.” Here’s a sampling of what Giant GCs and CMs are doing by way of technological and managerial innovation.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Construction Management Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, Barton Malow, Hill International top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest construction management and project management firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Contractors [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Turner, Whiting-Turner, Skanska top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest contractors in the United States.
