PHOENIX, Ariz.—Hoefer Welker, a Kansas City-based architecture firm, and U.S. Federal Properties (USFP), a Kansas City-based developer, recently finished construction on an outpatient clinic for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) located in Phoenix.

The Phoenix 32nd Street VA Clinic, which spans roughly 275,000 square feet across 15 acres, will see half a million patient visits each year and is now one of the largest veteran care facilities in the United States.

The five-story clinic includes multispecialty and telehealth clinics, an education center, pathology, and imaging. In addition to a full kitchen and canteen for staff and patients on the first floor, the second floor houses one of the largest outpatient mental health clinics in the area, which provides counseling and specialty mental health services. Floors three, four, and five feature an innovative planning approach for the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) module, which can accommodate 72 PACT teams serving approximately 180 exam rooms.

For the clinic’s design, Hoefer Welker utilized its expertise in designing more than 30 VA facilities to reflect veterans’ health needs, including common areas, easy navigation, and an overall focus on healing and hospitality. Efficient clinical space layout promoted by the PACT module’s on- and off-stage model protects patient privacy, promotes intuitive wayfinding, allows providers to spend more time with patients, and minimizes staff and patient fatigue. VA Phoenix’s design incorporates extensive daylighting features such as lightwells in darker parts of the facility, panoramic views of the Arizona mountains, and access to green space and outdoor activities to create a relaxing environment for veterans and their families.

The clinic’s interior design reflects Arizona’s vibrant colors and geological formations, such as deep fissures carved into the façades and roof of the building that imitate the rugged terrain. Given the clinic’s location in a desert climate, sustainability was a priority for the design team to deflect sun glare into the building and reduce the energy output needed to cool the facility. VA Phoenix, which achieved a Two Green Globes certification, incorporates climate-responsive design features such as high-performance glazing and perforated, adjustable solar panels, which reduce glare and heat from the Arizona sun and ultimately lower energy costs and waste.

Hoefer Welker worked with the City of Phoenix, the VA, and individual veterans throughout the project to ensure each voice was heard.

“As a firm, we’ve built a solid partnership with the VA over the past 15 years. VA projects are very unique because they’re centered around a mission to give back to the veteran community, which has very specific healthcare needs,” said Hoefer Welker Partner & Director of Design Hosam Habib, AIA. “We take pride in being a firm with this specialized knowledge in healthcare planning as it relates to the VA’s needs, which allows us to create exemplary healthcare facilities and high-quality care for our veterans. Projects like this take a village, and we couldn’t be prouder as a team of what we’ve accomplished.”

In addition to Hoefer Welker (architect) and USFP (developer), the multidisciplinary team includes Jacobsen Construction (general contractor); Smith & Boucher (MEP engineer); Bob D. Campbell & Co. (structural engineer); Dibble Engineering (civil engineer); Protection Engineering Consultants (blast engineers); FSC, Inc. (life safety); ARUP (sustainability consultant and climatic analyst); and Gates + Associates (landscape architect).

Founded in 1996, Hoefer Welker is a multidisciplinary architecture, interior design, medical equipment planning, technology consultancy and engineering firm known for collaborating with clients to create performance-driven solutions.

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SALT LAKE CITY—Prominent state and local government leaders joined with Jacobsen Construction Company employees this month to cut the ribbon on the acclaimed general contractor’s new headquarters in Salt Lake City’s International Center.

Honored guests Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Salt County Mayor Jenny Wilson and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall all shared remarks at the Sept. 3 celebration, describing how the contemporary new headquarters symbolizes the construction industry’s success in powering Utah’s nation-leading recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis.

Jacobsen President and CEO Gary Ellis also spoke to employees and special guests gathered for the outdoor occasion, describing the company’s recently completed modern workplace at 5181 W. Amelia Earhart Drive. He called the building an investment in Jacobsen’s people, its future and its community.

“Jacobsen’s new headquarters is a tangible, powerful way for the company to chart its own path ahead and innovate and invest in its people and the community as never before,” Ellis said.

Jacobsen, a nearly $1 billion company with $2.1 billion of work in its pipeline, has a deep and far-reaching impact on Utah’s economic strength, due to the construction trade’s enormous impacts on supply chains, small business subcontractors, and community growth and development. With most of Jacobsen’s headquarters constructed during 2020, the building’s progress also served as a hopeful sign that the construction industry could help Utah’s resilient economy come roaring back to life amid the many pressing challenges of the pandemic.

Jacobsen’s new HQ is located in Salt Lake City’s International Center business park—at the convergence of industry, manufacturing, air travel and hospitality.

There are currently several ongoing Jacobsen projects that will re-shape communities along the Wasatch Front and throughout Utah for many decades to come. These include the Salt Lake Temple and historic Temple Square renovation, and the new Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi, as well as university campus buildings from Logan to St. George. Jacobsen will soon begin building the University of Utah Medical Education & Discovery Building, and recently completed the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center in Taylorsville.

Designed to accommodate company growth, the 63,000-square-foot headquarters marks the first time in the firm’s 99-year history in which employees can go to work each day in an office built by Jacobsen, for Jacobsen.

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