Daytona Beach VA Clinic

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

The Department of Veterans Affairs Daytona Beach Multi-Specialty Clinic is a one-story, 131,020-square-foot replacement facility with on-site parking for up to 750 vehicles. The project's primary goal is to fully embody the VA's mission to provide a facility that “improves the quality of life and productivity as well as protects the health, safety, and welfare of the veterans, visitors, and staff." This is accomplished by providing each patient and visitor with a comforting and inviting environment with adequate amenities such as seating and natural daylight in corridors, workstations, and common areas, as well as outdoor trails and areas of respite that are easily accessible from the building.

The building vocabulary is more modern and intended to give visitors a first impression that they are entering a facility where they can expect the best in modern healthcare technology. Concrete tilt-up panels varying in height and overlap were used to meet blast requirements, provide a low-maintenance exterior wall, and de-emphasize the one-story aesthetic. The tilt-up panel configuration creates strong vertical elements at the secondary points of entry and at strategic locations around the perimeter to backdrop signage and weave together the concrete segments of the elevations. The tilt-up panels in this project were painted with earth-tone colors to provide a modern look to the building. The architectural forms and colors extend from the exterior to the interior, creating a greater relationship between the outdoors and the indoors.

All materials selected and specified for this project have proven durability in clinical environments and offer sustainable features, including using recycled content to minimize each product's life cycle cost. These materials, coupled with continuous rigid insulation and air barriers, optimize energy efficiency and thermal performance.

What obstacles were overcome related to the schedule, budget, program, specification, site, etc. on this project?

Aesthetically, as a single-story, L-shaped building, the project risked looking like a warehouse facility instead of a state-of-the-art healthcare campus. The project team collaborated offsite on the clinic design, modulating different scenarios and positions of the building. Ultimately, they determined that placement on the east side of the L-shaped property facing north would maximize natural light, ensuring a well-lit and welcoming lobby and patient waiting areas. Modulating the design off-site and utilizing prefabricated tilt-up wall panels helped significantly reduce onsite labor and material waste.

What is the potential for this project's impact on the community and/or environment?

As a replacement clinic, this new facility will serve more than 22,000 veterans across the region and provide ancillary and specialty services for an additional 5,500 veterans. During the design and construction phases, this project demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental conservation by using reclaimed wastewater for irrigation. The building design also incorporates multiple strategies to optimize energy efficiency and thermal performance and earned the achievement of the 2023 Green Globes Building Certification for New Construction: Two Green Globes® Certified by the Green Building Initiative. The rating of Two Green Globes demonstrates significant achievement in resource efficiency, reducing environmental impacts, and improving occupant wellness.