Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center

The Department of Veterans Affairs needed to replace an outdated VA hospital in Denver, Colorado. The Joint Venture team of Treanor, SOM, Cator Ruma Associates, and S.A. Miro was selected to design a new medical campus that would reinforce the VA as a leader in modern health care and research. The new campus needed to include inpatient, clinical, research, diagnostic & treatment, offices, and parking structures to support care for thousands of veterans from Colorado and surrounding states. The project team was entrusted to develop a sustainable design as bold and daring as the veterans it belongs to.

The medical campus encompasses 1.2 million square feet with 9 buildings and 3 parking garages that are visually and functionally connected through a central concourse, serving as the spine for all buildings. The concourse acts as the main street for the campus community, providing entry to all buildings and the central social place of interaction with the servery/dining center, chapel, and other support spaces. The inpatient buildings north and south and the diagnostic and treatment building are connected to the east side of the concourse; clinic buildings north and center are attached to the west side, while the research building connects to the southeast with pedestrian connectors to the parking garages.

The hospital launched into the 21st century with leading technology incorporated throughout, tele-health capabilities, the latest medical equipment, and high-performance MEP systems. To support sustainability goals mandated by the VA, the exterior of the buildings include high-performance glass systems for transparency and daylight while minimizing heating and cooling loads. Large fields of photovoltaic arrays (solar panels) are on many buildings to provide significant electricity for the facility. The interior design offers a sense of humanity to the large campus with warm colors, inviting finishes, and high-performance, low-maintenance materials.

Strong attention to detail makes this campus a place of wellness and restoration for patients, families, caregivers, and staff. Positive distractions in the form of art, outdoor paths, and courtyards offer moments of respite in this busy medical research campus. Landscaping incorporates native foliage to enhance the Rocky Mountain beauty and provide the healing influences of nature to body, soul, and mind. Overall, this campus provides many new services and improves the veteran health experience by promoting family involvement, care-provider connection, and the benefits of a patient-centered environment in wellness and recovery.