Neenan Archistruction and Northern Nevada HOPES celebrated the grand opening of The Jerry Smith Community Wellness Center in Reno, Nevada.
The center provides services including primary medical care, behavioral healthcare, case management, resource navigation, support groups, substance use treatment, an onsite pharmacy and transportation. The clinic includes a first-floor walk-in clinic, designed to reduce emergency service calls by providing residents an alternative to ambulance-based medical care.
The clinic was designed and built during HOPES’ active capital campaign, and the construction site became center state during all on-site donor tours. This required a high level of coordination between Neenan, HOPES and all project partners.
In addition to serving low-income residents, the clinic was intentionally placed across the street from the CARES campus, ensuring that transportation would not be an obstacle to receiving care.
Neenan Archistruction was enlisted on this project because of their customizable design-build process.
The team thoughtfully utilized design elements to enable co-location of services within the building, creating opportunities for warm hand-offs between providers and facilitating comprehensive, holistic care for patients. Features such as a walk-up pharmacy were incorporated to allow easy access for all patients, no matter their means of transportation.
The use of prefabricated paneling accelerated and reduced the cost of construction without compromising structural integrity, and ultimately enabled the center to begin accepting patients on schedule and minimizing construction disruption to the community. It also allowed the parking structure to be fully erected within just 12 days, greatly reducing the traffic disruptions during construction.
