Portfolio : Healthcare
Denali Center, Long-Term Care Facility
Fairbanks, Alaska
"...This is considered a home, not an institution. People who are spending 20 years here shouldn't have to feel they're in a hospital..."
- Linda Smith, Denali Center Administrator.
The Denali Center is a 65,000 square foot 90-bed, long-term health care facility in Fairbanks, Alaska. The single story building is a combination of wood and steel frame on concrete slab-on-grade construction. Four residential wings, each planned for a specific type of long-term care, radiate from a 27,000 square foot core that includes administrative and support services, activity areas, and dining facilities. All support spaces were sized to accommodate a future 30-bed addition. A connecting corridor links the new facility with the existing Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
The facility's residential wing design is being used to implement the Eden Alternative concept, adopted by hundreds of nursing homes and facilities throughout the United States, which is revolutionizing the long-term care industry. The objective is to make a facility into an idyllic setting that includes plants, animals, and children, and creates an environment conducive to health, happiness, and peacefulness.