New Mexico State Veterans Home Alzheimer’s and Skilled Nursing Unit
Features & Highlights
- LEED Silver® certification in progress
- Over $250,000 in value engineering options found
- Local mineral hot springs provide water for a therapeutic spa
- OSHA Recordable Incident Rate of 0.0
Project Overview
The city worked with the state of New Mexico for more than eight years to make this project a reality, as more than 70% of the existing patients at the New Mexico State Veterans Home suffer from some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s. The building has a unique purpose as the state’s only nursing facility for veterans.
The 87,600-square-foot facility was built to better serve the needs of veterans and their dependents. It includes a 39-bed special care Alzheimer’s unit and a 20-bed skilled nursing section for residents requiring physical rehabilitation or higher levels of nursing care. The building also houses plenty of common areas including a wellness center, recreation areas, office space, meeting space, and support areas including laundry, staff lockers, and MEP equipment.
Insulated concrete forms (ICF) are a relatively unique structural element in the Southwest. The integral foam with the concrete walls created an unanticipated compatibility issue with the specified building wrap. As this was discovered prior to building wrap installation, we were able to minimize the cost impact to change the water barrier to non-petroleum-based material with no impact to project schedule and minimal cost impact. The discovery also brought other conditions where compatibility was not achievable under current specifications. We resolved those issues without delay to the project.