Ft. Belvoir Replacement Hospital Nears Completion

Scheduled to open in spring 2011, the 120-bed hospital is being built through an integrated design/bid/build procurement process. When completed, the facility will feature a combination of energy-efficient systems and therapeutic healing spaces for active-duty service members, retirees and their families.

 

Designers are targeting LEED Silver Certification status for Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, on which construction began in late 2007.

The project stems from a base realignment and closure directive to integrate many of the medical operations in the Washington, D.C., area onto two major campuses at Fort Belvoir and Bethesda, Md. The Fort Belvoir hospital will take over some of the services now offered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; the rest will be rolled into the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

 

Designed to flank a centralized inpatient unit, the Fort Belvoir hospital will house a 10-bed intensive care unit, a 10-bed behavioral health inpatient unit, 10 operating rooms, a cancer center, 30 ER exam rooms, a 12-window pharmacy, and numerous administrative, clinical and diagnostic offices and labs. The hospital’s main seven-story building will sit between outpatient facilities comprising more than 25 primary and specialty care clinics and parking garages on either side. The hospital grounds will also include a helipad, ambulance shelter, and dedicated central energy plant.

 

The swooped roofs of the hospital will collect rainwater into an irrigation system for a healing garden that patients can sit in or view from all waiting rooms. A green roof over the central portion of the hospital will reduce water runoff, as will a system of bioswales on the ground.

 

Architects used evidence-based health care design to create a therapeutic, family-centered facility. In addition to a site plan that integrates fully and partially enclosed outdoor courtyards, the hospital is divided into five nature-themed sections — river, eagle, sunrise, oak and meadow. Half of the hospital’s rooms face east and half face west, ensuring that patients are provided either morning or afternoon sunlight. Each room will have independent controls for temperature, lights and other patient amenities.

 

Kiosks throughout the hospital and parking garages will provide directions and intercoms so that patients can notify doctors of their arrival. The project also includes surface and garage parking for 2,600 vehicles.  

 

Alexandria, Va.-based HDR, Fairfax, Va.-headquartered Dewberry and the US Army Corps of Engineers designed the hospital. Turner-Gilbane, a joint venture of Arlington, Va.-based Turner Construction Company and the Laurel, Md., office of Gilbane Building Company, is building the facility. 

 

Ultimately, the medical campus will house several facilities, including a 248,000-square-foot transition complex, a 50,000-square-foot headquarters for the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, a 23,000-square-foot dental clinic and a 37,000-square-foot child development center.

 

The $76 million transition facility will include room for 276 wounded troops, as well as a soldier and family assistance center and company and battalion headquarters.
 

Learn more about the project at http://www.belvoirnewvision.com.