Virginia Center for Behavioral Health Celebrates Facility Expansion at Groundbreaking Ceremony
Arlington, VA – The Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR) and HDR June 18 joined Virginia officials to celebrate the Burkesville facility expansion at a groundbreaking ceremony. The forthcoming facility features expanded treatment facilities and 258-bed housing expansion, to include 185,000 square feet of new construction and 50,000 square feet of renovation.
“As a firm, we aim to push boundaries to achieve greater outcomes. Partnering with The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and connecting their goals with the HDR team’s expertise has encouraged innovative problem-solving that will be reflected in occupant outcomes,” said Jason Beshore, Health Principal at HDR. “We’re truly honored to have such strong partners in VCBR.”
In 2013, VCBR selected HDR to design the expansion and renovation of its confined facility to support improvement in resident rehabilitation. HDR’s concepts and design goals were supported by an ongoing research study focused on the hypothesis that the architectural design of the VCBR expansion will be associated with improved outcomes for residents (formerly incarcerated individuals) both while committed and after release.
“The HDR team has provided motivation, guidance, and expertise through all steps of achieving VCBR’s goal of designing a facility that supports our mission of providing recovery, opportunities, and support so that residents may safely return to the community,” said Jason Wilson, VCBR Facility Director. “The partnership resulted in a facility that will improve clinical outcomes; fostering a therapeutic environment rather than merely providing space for services. The VCBR leadership team has been pleased to partner with such a dynamic team as HDR.”
HDR and VCBR have been recognized for their innovative, research-based design solutions with awards from the Environmental Design Research Association and The Center for Health Design.
The project’s guiding principles include improvement in VCBR’s capabilities to treat residents via provision of a multi-tiered environment that allows for increasing responsibility and self-management as residents progress through the program.
Key programmatic components include:
- Large centralized Treatment Mall
- Park-like garden directly off the Mall
- Treatment (medical, dental and behavioral health), education, vocational, exercise and leisure activity spaces
- Housing expansion of 258-beds for their special needs (including medically and psychiatrically complex, intellectually disabled, detainee and detention) and transitional populations.
HDR is the architect of record for the expansion and provided programming, planning, design, construction documents and construction-phase services. HDR worked closely with Balfour Beatty, Adtek Engineering, Valley Engineering, GovSolutions and Stanton Fire Protection.
About HDR’s Healthcare Experience
At HDR, we blend our deep knowledge of healthcare delivery with our understanding of how environments can shape behaviors and outcomes to create solutions for clients that respect the human impact of their work — solutions that champion human-centered design, solve real problems, make lives better and advance wellness, well-being, healing and cures.
About HDR
For more than a century, HDR has partnered with clients to shape communities and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Our expertise spans 10,000 employees, in more than 225 locations around the world — and counting. Our engineering, architecture, environmental and construction services bring an impressive breadth of knowledge to every project. Our optimistic approach to finding innovative solutions defined our past and drives our future.
