The Center for Community Health is a shining example of federal, state and local governments partnering with non-profit organizations to bring comprehensive and accessible community services under one roof. LSW helped facilitate collaboration, develop a program and design a facility to accommodate these services.

One of the greatest design challenges was to safely and efficiently house services that rarely cohabitate in the same facility. For this reason, the building was organized into four floors separating these distinct services, progressing from the most intensive on the first floor to lowest risk on the fourth floor. 

A steeply graded site allows two floors to have grade-level entries. One entrance opens into a space housing the 24-hour drug and alcohol addiction treatment recovery programs; the other provides access into specialized services with high demand and short turnover. The third floor houses the Clark County Health Department’s formal medical services. Offices used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Clark County business and administrative services are located on the fourth floor.

The footprint for the 176,000 sf facility is long and thin with a single entrance that serves the top three levels. To reduce the need for long corridors, the entrance is located at the building midpoint. The lobby is the vibrant heart of the facility providing adjacent meeting rooms, a coffee bar, and access points to other floors. The lobby’s public nature creates a passively-secure space, allowing dissimilar clients to safely interact.

The final product for the Center for Community Health was an immediate success. Design standards for behavioral health facilities were incorporated within LSW’s planning efforts and innovative delivery systems like housing first and harm education models were considered in the formation of program services. In addition to the traditional services offered by the Health Department, the center was also able to provide counseling for HIV, chemical dependency and alcohol, recovery assistance and support, mental health services, drug testing, family, teen pregnancy and youth services, 24-hour care for acute and sub-acute detox and a 60-bed, 90-day inpatient recovery house and separate recovery house for the deaf and hard of hearing people.