Featured Project: Dulce Health Care Facility
Project: Dulce Health Care Facility
Company: WHPacific
Challenge: Design a new community healthcare building to providing modern health care for the members of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe in northern New Mexico
Client: Jicarilla Apache Tribe
The 2005 Southwest Contractor Best Buildings and 2005 Cooper Lighting Source Award winning two-story, 61,512 square foot, $9 million facility was constructed to provide a broad range of services including urgent care, primary care, a pharmacy, physical therapy, dentistry, a morgue and many other services. Administration, facility management, information management, employee facilities and facility support were also incorporated in the design.
Blending with the natural terrain, the new design incorporates the cultural architecture of the area. The rotunda is capped with a sloping roof, punctuated by a central skylight allowing sun to peek into the building with its soft glow. A depiction of a Jicarilla basket design and the cardinal directions of the Jicarilla culture are embossed in the floor pattern of the rotunda. Curving monumental stairs provide access to the second floor. The stair and balcony handrail is accentuated by etched glass panels symbolizing the people and designs indicative of the Tribe. Around the second floor balcony circulating the rotunda are 12 stainless steel cables that suggest teepee poles common to the Jicarilla Nation.