TEMPE, AZ — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) has recognized the Mountain Park Health Center clinic in Tempe, Arizona in its 2020 Healthcare Design Awards program. Designed by SmithGroup, the 30,000-square-foot clinic advances the health system’s mission to deliver high-quality and accessible healthcare to underserved communities.

Each year, the AAH Healthcare Design Awards showcase the best of healthcare building design, planning, and research. The eight projects honored this year highlight designs that help solve aesthetic, civic, urban, and social challenges while also being functional and sustainable.

The Tempe clinic transcends a typical community health clinic by providing holistic care through an innovative clinical model developed in partnership with SmithGroup. In a single visit, patients are seen by a range of healthcare providers in one setting. Care teams work in an on-stage/off-stage model, collaborating closely to provide integrated care. Workspaces for staff are designed to enable communication and interaction, including a main concourse, collaborative work rooms, and small pods for private consultation or heads-down work. Staff wellness is supported with social spaces, a kitchen, and a patio, offering moments of respite often overlooked in the healthcare setting.

Mountain Park Health Center’s aim to enrich the lives of their patients influences their strategy of locating where their services are most needed and capitalizing on under-utilized real estate to bolster both needed healthcare and community revitalization. The Tempe clinic, completed in 2017, transformed a former boat dealership into an accessible, amenity-rich facility featuring public programs focusing on wellness and community health. Vibrant colors and bold graphics are carried inside and out, creating universal wayfinding, while natural light creates a welcoming environment for patients.

Surrounding the clinic, the site has also been renewed to provide a public asset to the community. A natural desert landscape is intersected with guided walking paths featuring exercise nodes. A tree nursery and community orchard, play areas, and a grassy retention basin doubling as a gathering area are all open to the public even when the clinic is closed, serving the public with equitably accessible green space.

SmithGroup's Phoenix office provided integrated design services including medical planning, programming, architecture, interior architecture, MEP engineering, and landscape architecture. Concord General Contracting served as the general contractor for the clinic. Other key design team members include civil engineering by Vespro and structural engineering by PK Associates, LLC.