“I’ve been involved in many projects in my time, and one of the things that are always important to me, is you involve the stakeholders in the process, those who are going to be the end-users, and we wanted to draw from a bit of a larger area.
“We were forming the types of programs and services that we were ultimately going to put in the building. Second, we wanted to represent a move toward wellness care in all aspects and innovation to guide us.
“In other words, we didn’t just want to build another medical office building. We wanted to make sure we’re doing something different. We certainly wanted to make sure that we have an opportunity to partner with the community. How are we going to get our community healthy? We want to be the provider of choice.
“We wanted to make sure that what we put in there is designed to meet the consumer’s needs. A big part of it is convenience and access to services in one location.
“Even though you can go to a hospital for most services, some people have a block in their mind about going to a hospital to receive services.
“Some people want to go in for their services and don’t want to be moving around from office to office.
“Planning started in earnest from September through December, including several breakout sessions with stakeholders and VEBH Architects. We began the design phase of programmatic planning in December through January. Stakeholders signed off on the final plan in February. We received board approval and planned to open the building in late August or early September.”