LAKEVILLE, Minn.—Allina Health can now serve patients with expanded care offerings and provide coordinated care in the Twin Cities south metro through the opening of its new Lakeville Specialty Center. A ribbon-cutting event was held on May 16 and offered tours of the new building. Additionally, in recognition of Allina Health’s position as the Official Health Care Provider of Minnesota United FC, the event also included a special appearance by MNUFC players.

The 100,000-square-foot center includes more than 10 specialty services, including heart care, dermatology, orthopedics, women’s health and more. Patients can find peace of mind when unexpected illnesses and injuries happen by visiting the center’s urgent care, which includes Allina Health’s first orthopedic urgent care.

“We understand people prefer care close to home and that most of us choose to avoid the hospital setting when possible,” said Bill Evans, Vice President of Ambulatory Operations for Allina Health. “The Allina Health Lakeville Specialty Center is the result of the careful planning of many colleagues and community partners who recognize the importance of adapting to changing health care needs and working together to create options which better serve our patients.”

Wold Architects and Engineers, a St. Paul-based architectural and engineering firm with extensive healthcare design expertise, led the design for many of the Allina Health specialty clinic spaces, including areas to support dermatology, imaging, Mental Health Integration (MHI), orthopedics, rheumatology and more.

“We are honored to have been a part of this project and are grateful for our ongoing partnership with Allina Health,” said Andrew Jordan, Principal at Wold Architects and Engineers. “We’re proud we could help bring these new clinic spaces to life and look forward to seeing the positive impact the new center will have on the community in Lakeville for many years to come.”

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LAKEVILLE, Minn.—Allina Health, a nonprofit health system serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin, announced the grand opening of its Lakeville North Clinic, a modern-day primary care clinic with specialty services, including eye care, mental health and retail eye services. To celebrate the new facility’s grand opening, Allina Health hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and public event on November 17 with staff, patients, project partners and prominent Lakeville community members, including the Chamber of Commerce, in attendance. Additionally, with Allina Health’s position as the Official Health Care Provider of Minnesota’s professional soccer team, Minnesota United FC, two players from the team were onsite for photo and autograph opportunities with the community.

Allina Health Lakeville North Clinic is an approximately 24,000-square-foot facility that proudly hosts a calming environment for patients and incorporates nature-based imagery, including photos as wall coverings at the ends of hallways.

“We are thrilled with the turnout at our grand opening event to celebrate the impact the new Lakeville North Clinic will have on the community,” said Dave Slowinske, Senior Vice President of Operations for Allina Health. “Allina Health is committed to providing high quality, affordable care close to home. People living in the Twin Cities South Metro will now have access to this incredible facility featuring exceptional care offerings, including mental health services and eye care resources.”

The project’s design was led by Wold Architects and Engineers, a Saint Paul-based architectural and engineering firm with healthcare design expertise. The eye clinic at Allina Health Lakeville North Clinic was designed with larger exam rooms to hold eye exam equipment, patient screenings and work spaces. Additionally, the eye clinic boasts a large retail space which includes display fixtures, lots of natural light and a decorative laser-cut metal privacy screen to separate the work space from the retail area.

The outpatient mental health areas were also designed with patient comfort and privacy in mind, with design aspects including a private check-in area, private consult rooms with windows for natural light and the use of calming colors to create serene environments for patients under stress.

“Wold Architects and Engineers is proud to continue investing in communities across Minnesota and beyond that provide critical developments and impactful services in healthcare,” said Andrew Jordan, Principal at Wold Architects and Engineers. “As a local firm, we are always eager to demonstrate our extensive design expertise in developing state-of-the-art facilities and bringing ideas to the table that foster long-term growth.”

Dunham Associates served as partners in mechanical and electrical engineering for the project. Other construction partners included Knutson Construction and C70 Builders.

Allina Health Lakeville North Clinic is located at 17489 Dodd Blvd., Lakeville, Minn.

Allina Health is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of illness and enhancing the greater health of individuals, families and communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Wold Architects and Engineers is a full-service planning, architecture and engineering firm with offices in Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado and Tennessee.

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MINNEAPOLIS—An HGA-Designed Surgical and Critical Care Facility has broken ground in the Twin Cities at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, aiming to offer advanced, cutting-edge healthcare for years to come.

The new HGA-designed surgical and critical care facility at Abbott Northwestern Hospital is the largest facilities project in Allina Health’s history. The new center will reimagine the hospital campus, revitalize infrastructure, and optimize essential services, providing a foundation for the future of Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Allina Health, a non-profit health system offering care to communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. As Allina Health’s quaternary care center, Abbott Northwestern is consistently ranked as the number one hospital in the Twin Cities, offering advanced subspecialty care for the most complex patients across the region.

Translating Research into Transformation

Driven by an increasing demand for private beds and procedure rooms, Abbott Northwestern Hospital began working with HGA in early 2021 to expand their campus. HGA collaborated with the Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Allina Health teams in the design of a highly integrative master plan for the addition of a surgical and critical care facility, along with phased removal and repurposing of aged facilities. A human-centered design process was utilized, translating user and staff experience research into well-defined experiential principles and design goals.

“We designed the site to open the hidden, unconnected campus outward to the surrounding community,” said Jennifer Klund, Principal at HGA.” She continued, “Public spaces and circulation systems will knit the existing hospital, surrounding buildings, and the new bed tower into a coherent complex with one clear front door and simple, understandable navigation.”

Constructed by long-term partner Mortenson, the facility is scheduled to be completed in 2026, part of a campus improvement plan taking place over a 10-year period. The surgical and critical care building converts Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s iconic Founder’s Mall into a welcoming arrival garden. Placement and massing of the building dramatically increases Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s visibility while minimizing its bulk from the surrounding neighborhoods. When complete, the addition will include 192 new beds, 30 new operating rooms and over one-half million square feet of new construction on a tight, urban site in the center of an operating campus. The design of the building complements a traditional urban campus with a fresh new look, melding effortlessly into the existing architecture.

Flexible for the Future

To prepare the hospital for the future of healthcare, HGA also established a new patient room and unit prototype. At the direction of hospital leadership, the patient room and unit plan use the DIRTT prefabricated construction system that uses a universal interface with interchangeable parts, allowing for reconfigurations, adaptations, and adjustments, as well as a longer life cycle in most cases. This will be the first large-scale inpatient use of the product in the State of Minnesota.

To support rapid advances in medical technology and surgical technique, new operating rooms were designed with flexibility and adaptation in mind. Patient rooms were designed with enhanced technology and accessibility and comfort features. The interventional platform provides new operating rooms and procedure spaces that address both patient outcomes and staff engagement. Modeled through simulations to demonstrate operational efficiencies, the platform offers long-term flexibility to respond to the changing nature of surgical case mixes over time.

Clarifying an Urban Setting

The roof of the interventional platform is designed as a roof garden, giving families and caregivers a landscaped refuge with great city views in a busy urban setting. The roof garden is also a central focal point for over 50% of the new and existing inpatient beds on campus. A new, glassy skyway connects all elements of the facility and provides visitors with dramatic views of the Founder’s mall as they traverse the campus.

Wayfinding and access to the Emergency Department has been clarified, and a large public art installation has been added to the Emergency Department parking area, creating a more intentional relationship with the adjacent residential street, and providing a welcoming experience for patients.

In preparation for construction, which was scheduled for two phases, HGA designed a 1,100-foot extension to a temporary skyway retaining intuitive wayfinding along the familiar main path to the hospital. The skyway also provides access to existing departments for visitors and materials during construction. Phase I of the project includes building a new entry over the old and demolishing an adjacent main parking ramp. Once the new surgical and critical care facility, parking deck and skyway are in place, the temporary connection will be removed.

To ensure constant hospital operations HGA designed a series of enabling projects that included a temporary front door, a skyway link to the new parking deck, interim materials management routes, and utility improvements needed to modernize the campus infrastructure. Designed to act as steps along the way to the final state, these enabling projects minimize the number of temporary structures and limit construction waste.

“The Abbott Northwestern Hospital campus has evolved and grown since 1887 and our commitment to this community has never wavered,” said Lisa Shannon, president and CEO, Allina Health. “We are creating a sustainable campus for the future that will support advances in health care delivery, meet the needs of our best-in-class workforce and enhance our value to the communities we serve.”

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