Kaiser Permanente - Alexandria

When building a medical office, there isn’t much room for error. Clinical spaces have strict construction requirements to ensure the environment complies with health standards. Our project team knew careful planning and collaborating would be required, and we were able to successfully employ BIM coordination throughout the process. On top of these challenges, we were building on an active project site, with the Base-Building and Interiors building the out the NIB Headquarters in the same space! There were some perks of working so close with our own teams, though—even before the Kaiser Permanente project began, our Healthcare team sat in on BIM meetings that our Base Building and Interiors teams were holding while constructing the NIB headquarters. Learning what worked for those teams was crucial to the preparation for the Medical Center, and we were able to design systems well in advance to make the process start as smoothly as possible. Kaiser Permanente’s standards are extremely high for all their facilities, and they bring inspectors to each project site to make sure those standards are met before construction can proceed to the next step. This could have impacted the project’s schedule, but we wanted no delays to the timeline. Our team adapted the quality control program to the rigorous requirements and made sure inspections went seamlessly, and Kaiser Permanente was able to move in on-time.

Kaiser Permanente provides high-quality care to their members, and that mission is reflected the clinical spaces we built for primary care, physical therapy, optometry, OB/GYN, and pneumography services, as well as a fully functional testing lab. The Imaging space includes extensive radiation protection measures, including an 8-inch lead shell around all its walls, and our team took special care when building this room to make sure no radioactive waves could bleed through.  Members can also pick up their medications at the fully active pharmacy on the third floor—one of the most complex coordination efforts occurred during the build-out of the pharmacy, as our team worked for six straight hours to fit a 30-foot rolling door into the space through a 3x5 window!

In addition to providing a space for excellent healthcare services, the Medical Center is a comfortable, warm environment with exceptional design touches. Guests are greeted in the lobby with a floating wood ceiling and wood feature wall, and aesthetic reveals line the wall and ceiling in the waiting area while providing a platform for custom wall graphics. Additionally, we installed a unique custom hexagonal carpet tile pattern, with each tile adhering to a specific color and direction.

DAVIS is proud to have worked with Kaiser Permanente on this project, as well as their medical office at the Stafford Hospital and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Lab in Rockville, MD. The addition of this office provides an invaluable service to members in the Alexandria community, and helps shape the development in the burgeoning Potomac Yard neighborhood. In addition to the NIB headquarters which hosts the medical office, we’re constructing the Institute for Defense Analyses headquarters, as well as the APTA Centennial Center!

Photos by Judy Davis Architectural Photographer