Asheville New CLC and Access Care Expansion Project Book

Department of Veterans Affairs

VISN 6, Charles George VA Medical Center, Asheville, NC

Serving as the Prime A/E, Romanyk Consulting Corporation (RCC) developed a Project Book for a new Community Living Center (CLC) and to renovate Building 62 into primary and specialty care clinical space at the Charles George VA Medical Center.

The new CLC totals 180,000 square feet. It is a 90-bed small home complex. The CLC includes resident homes, neighborhood centers, a community center, and all other associated facilities and improvements. The new small-home, patient-centric complex creates a more spacious, comfortable, and home-like residence for Veterans. Single rooms afford Veterans privacy for personal belongings. Neighborhoods include care areas, arranged in a home/family style to facilitate socialization. A new community center includes a chapel and entertainment space. There are gardens and outdoor spaces for walking, relaxing, diversion, and exercise.

The second portion of the Project Book addresses how to renovate and backfill the old CLC (Building 62) into 72,000 square feet of new ambulatory space. This new primary care and specialty clinic space is needed to help reduce patient wait times, and increase patient satisfaction.

The Project Book contains pre-design assessments and planning documentation for the VA’s major construction project. The project includes new space for community living, primary care and specialty care services. The project also includes needs for impacted services and infrastructure related to parking, traffic, loading docks, chiller and boiler areas, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) consolidation, and needed demolition.

The Project Book catalogs and refines a “needs analysis” for the new construction and existing buildings impacted by the project. The needs assessment consisted of detailed technical analysis and planning assessments. The technical analysis included comprehensive engineering information on the proposed site as well as the existing conditions related to utilities, transportation and parking, accessibility, architecture, geotechnical, physical security, energy, MEP conditions/needs, civil, energy, information technology, and hazardous materials. For the planning analysis, RCC assisted the VA in the review of functional departments going into the project and the finalization of the SEPS generated space Program for Design (PFD). The space program detailed all the space requirements and needs for the ten impacted departmental areas involved in the project. Following the completion of the space programming, RCC developed options for constructing the new CLC and renovating Building 62 inclusive of site and departmental block plans. Furthermore, a comprehensive project cost estimate, timeline, and risk register was developed to support future project planning and execution.