A ribbon-cutting ceremony was recently held for the Southeast Louisiana Veteran Healthcare System Replacement Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The 1.7-million-square-foot campus includes 200 inpatient beds, 300 outpatient exam rooms, 20 intervention procedure rooms, emergency and imaging departments, rehabilitation and mental health services, patient education facilities and a transitional living center. 
The project team included: Clark/McCarthy and Studio Nova Joint Venture: NBBJ, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Rozas Ward Architects.
In addition to the clinical components, the campus includes administration and research buildings, structured parking for 2,000 vehicles, a central energy plant and the historic preservation of the Pan Am office building and the Dixie Brewery.
Special attention was paid to the design of the VA facility in order to ensure it sensitively integrated into the surrounding neighborhood. Generous green zones create a series of landscape buffers between the VA buildings and the existing neighborhood. Building masses and landscape spaces are subdivided and articulated in order to ensure a pedestrian-oriented scale and create a gracious sense of place.
Photos courtesy of VA Medical Center: NBBJ/Sean Airhart.
