Stantec-Designed Medical Center Opens on Oahu

By Eric Althoff

KAHALA, Hawaii—Working out of its office in Hawaii’s capital city, the engineering, design and architecture firm Stantec recently unveiled a brand-new, 8,232-square-foot critical care healthcare facility located inside the busy Kūʻono Marketplace at Kahala, one of the island of Oahu’s major shopping destinations for locals and visitors alike. The Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care is situated at the marketplace directly across from Kahala Mall.

Stantec’s Honolulu office prepared not only the design of the clinic itself but also worked on planning out what specific medical services would be available once the facility was open to the public. As with Straub’s other nearby clinics in Ward Village and Kapolei, the Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care will offer a wide variety of care options for the community of Kahala, which is named for a fish native to the waters of the Hawaiian islands.

Among its other facilities, the Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care will offer primary and urgent care as well as specialty services. The facility will feature 19 examination rooms and an X-ray suite, whose imaging services will be provided by Clinical Labs of Hawaii. Clinical Labs will also provide laboratory services for the clinic.

Stantec’s client for building the Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care was Hawaii Pacific Health, which operates four medical centers on Oahu that are located at Kapiolani, Pali Momi, Straub and Wilcox. Hawaii Pacific Health operates as not-for-profit healthcare provider.

Christie Fong, Stantec project manager, said in a recent statement that the clinic will help redefine what community medical amenities are available to people in Kahala.

“It’s been inspirational working with Straub and Hawaii Pacific Health to develop this new facility to provide critical outpatient services,” Fong said.

Part of Stantec’s design ethos for the Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care was to continue to foster new places that are essential to community health. Accordingly, Stantec’s considers its healthcare facilities to be “healing spaces” that appear welcoming and less like a traditional ER or hospital setting. Accordingly, the facility at Kūʻono Marketplace at Kahala features a large, open-air lobby with high ceilings that allow for ample natural lighting to enter the lobby as well as the waiting areas.

“With an emphasis on patient experience, our design of the Straub Clinic and Urgent Care reflects the health and wellness of the surrounding Hawaii community,” Fong added in a recent statement that was emailed to HCO News. “High ceilings and natural light in waiting areas create an open and inviting environment while thoughtful wayfinding reduces stress for patients and visitors.

“In addition to bringing much-needed critical care, the new space is safe, open, and inviting [which is] vital to healing,” she said.

Stantec, which boasts well over 200 worldwide office locations, has been producing facilities in Hawaii for over a decade, including healthcare spaces. Stantec worked on the Straub Medical Center–Kahala Clinic & Urgent Care in conjunction with general contractor Allied Builders, which has an office in Honolulu.