A groundbreaking work, the VA Hospital Building System (VAHBS) (also known as the “Red Book,”) has guided the design and construction of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities since its original publication in 1972. In 2006, when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs embarked on construction of its first new facility in nearly 20 years, VA facilities professionals and architects worked together to create a facility that gave a definitive nod to the enduring Red Book but also updated the agency’s established criteria for hospital design to suit contemporary needs.
A recent article in Health Facilities Management magazine details the process the design and construction team used to develop the VA Medical Center Complex in North Las Vegas – a joint venture between RTKL Associates Inc., Baltimore, and JMA Architecture Studios, Las Vegas. The team incorporated traditional tenets from the Red Book while looking closely at such factors as the ever-evolving ideas surrounding patient care environments and new force protection and security requirements in the wake of such events as Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City federal building bombing and 9/11.
As the article notes, the new Las Vegas medical center is designed to showcase the VA’s guiding principles for the 21st century: people-centric, results-driven and forward-looking. To this end, the team created a master plan for the campus that could give it a good 100 years of use. The modern-looking campus features multiple services including ambulatory care, acute care, mental health care and long-term care, each housed in a separate facility. The campus also features an administration/education building. All are distinctly separate units but are joined by a “central pedestrian spine,” the article notes. This spine, visible from all buildings’ windows, provides a distinct wayfinder for the high volume of daily visitors, assisting movement throughout the campus, easily and efficiently.
The buildings themselves are designed to be expandable and accommodate future technology – with spaces large enough to move equipment in and out of the facility, as needed, without the need to tear down walls, according to the article. The entire, consolidated campus strives to provide “state-of-the-art” care to veterans now and well into the future.
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