The Veterans Administration Butler Health Care Center (HCC), located in Butler, Pa., opened yesterday. The $68 million, 168,000-net-square-foot facility creates a new home for the outpatient needs of nearly 20,000 western Pennsylvania veterans. Designed to support the VA’s new patient-centered-community-care (P3) model, the center serves a broad spectrum of veterans’ needs.

The new HCC houses primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, dental, diagnostic, laboratory, pathology, radiology, podiatry, optometry, pharmacy, physical rehabilitation, women’s health and more. The building houses nine Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) areas. Each PACT includes exams rooms with two doors. The patient enters one, and healthcare providers use the other door. From medical exams to therapy and other treatments, most professional services come to the veterans, reducing travel time and confusion. Each PACT, including one exclusively for women, features its own waiting area.

The interior design of the VA Butler HCC takes its cue from the area’s farmland and manufacturing heritage. Distinctive curved ceilings reflect the lush rolling landscape, while a metal and glass staircase honors the area’s industrial strength. Metal, glass and smooth wood accents throughout balance the manufactured with nature and establish an open, airy feel.

Other key features include a 14 x 30-foot American flag digital mural high up in the lobby and visible from both floors of the two-story building as well as a multi-purpose room for ceremonies and other large gatherings. The facility offers a canteen for light snacks and coffee, a wellness center shared by staff and vets, a large hydro-therapy pool and patient lift for those with spinal cord injuries, a physical therapy/occupational therapy area with outdoor walking surfaces of varying materials, and a daycare area. The facility received a LEED Silver certification.

Stantec’s Pennsylvania-based architects, interior designers, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers, and landscape architects were part of a public-private partnership (P3) team with Cambridge Healthcare Solutions PA and Mascaro Construction Company (Pittsburgh, Pa.) The VA will lease the facility from Cambridge Healthcare Solutions for a 20-year term.

The Cambridge-Stantec-Mascaro team contract established a tight delivery schedule: occupancy within 31 months from the date the contract signing. Due to the team’s experience and an efficient design and construction process, construction was ultimately completed in May 2017, seven months ahead of VA Butler’s deadline. In March, the building was formally named the Abie Abraham VA Clinic, after a World War II veteran.

Construction is also wrapping up on two additional VA Health Care Centers designed by Stantec: VA Bay Pines (Florida) and VA Puget Sound (Washington).