11 minute read
For the health of it
Therapy gym with leading-edge therapy technology and outdoor therapy areas.
Building inviting rehabilitation facilities
Photography by NGN Photography
As Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital (Reunion) expands its system of state-of-the-art inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, the Dallas-based company partnered with Adolfson & Peterson (AP) Construction and Dallas-based American Development & Investments (ADI) to build a pair of facilities in Peoria and Phoenix, Arizona.
The brand new facility offers the amenities needed for patients to experience a pleasant and productive stay, including large common areas for family and friend visitation as well as an on-site cafe and vending machines.
Why are these locations ideal? A recent US Census Bureau report revealed the Phoenix area is the fastest-growing big city between 2010 and 2020, adding more than 163,000 residents during that time. This growth spilled over to Phoenix’s West Valley suburbs, including Peoria, which makes these locations ideal for modern rehabilitation hospitals. In addition to the growing populace, the US Census Bureau states almost one-quarter of the US population is older than 60, resulting in an increased need for medical services for potential injuries given the aging demographic. Building these new construction projects in the ever-changing world of healthcare comes with unique issues. Complexities from creating facilities that maintain privacy while providing the latest treatments can add to the challenges. That does not even include building state of the art facilities that also are welcoming (and within a budget and on time). Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital provides its patients with a results-oriented environment where they can accelerate functional recovery and restore confidence while also being comfortable. The 51,000 square-foot, three-story Phoenix hospital is located at 1675 E. Villa St. and the three-story 49,128-square-foot Peoria location is at 13451 N. 94th Dr. These stateof-the-art facilities were both custom-built. The rehabilitation hospitals create a more inviting atmosphere than you typically expect in a medical environment. The Phoenix facility has 48 private inpatient suites, two advanced physical therapy rooms, a large visitation room, an on-site café, multiple apartments designed for working on daily living tasks and an outdoor therapy and relaxation space. The Phoenix location opened in April 2022. The Peoria location includes 40 patient beds (20-bed nursing units on each floor), two high-tech physical therapy gyms, administrative offices and dining and kitchen spaces along with various back-ofthe-house support spaces. AP is managing the complete interior build-out as well as all associated site work and utility services with anticipated opening in January 2023. Both buildings have more of a resort feel versus an institutional setting. Hospitals are focused on a patient’s well-being. These facilities treat people with comprehensive inpatient physical-medicine rehabilitation therapies for debilitating illnesses and injuries, such as stroke and brain injury, as well as other complex neurological and orthopedic conditions.
The Reunion projects provide treatment in spaces that offer a more relaxed vibe. For example, in the Phoenix location, the physical therapy gyms are on the third floor with lovely views throughout the space, including scenes of the mountains on the northeast corner. Additionally, the gym area is designed to jut out of the building within an overhang. Three of the four walls in the therapy gym are full-height glass from floor-to-ceiling, which creates a more inviting atmosphere filled with natural light. The first level also features floor-to-ceiling glass. Even in the full production kitchen, there are several exterior windows to allow natural light into the facilities. There also is a substantial amount of ceramic tile throughout the facilities. In each bathroom, the tile goes up five feet from the floor to the ceiling in the shower. AP was able to successfully maneuver through the challenges of getting the details of the drainage in the bathroom with the profile of the tile.
Upscale rather than institutional
The high quality of these upscale, wellthought-out structures set them apart from other standard, run-of-the-mill rehab facilities. Designed by Dallas-based Callaway Architecture, the design and finishes selected for the projects are not the typical selections you’d expect to see in a rehabilitation facility. Callaway put a lot of time into designing each individual patient room, with 48 beds in Phoenix and 40 beds in Peoria. Each patient room is larger than a conventional room and they all feature floating wood-look shelves under the television with a wardrobe in each one. All rooms come with window shades, giving the patient the ability to choose to have the window shade open or closed. There is a private bathroom in each patient room with a full walk-in shower. The patient rooms also have a sink inside for easy hand washing without having to go into the bathroom. The flooring is a luxury vinyl tile, which is a polyvinyl chloride material that is low maintenance and durable with a long-life span. The rehabilitation facilities
Reunion Rehab Hospital Phoenix - 1675 E Villa St-81 – Phoenix’s brandnew facility offers 48 private patient suites equipped with features for patient safety and security.
City of Peoria Vice Mayor Bill Patena was present at the Topping Out Ceremony for RRH Peoria where he signed the steel beam and addressed the public before the last beam was placed. (Pictured: Jason Axtell, AP Project Manager; Bill Patena, Vice Mayor for City of Peoria; Zac Byard, AP Senior Superintendent.)
Ground-level shot of a crane lifting the last steel beam for placement to complete the exterior structure of the new rehabilitation hospital
Celebration after successful placement of the final steel beam that completes the exterior structure of Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital Peoria.
Building these new construction projects in the ever-changing world of healthcare comes with unique issues. Complexities from creating facilities that maintain privacy while providing the latest treatments can add to the challenges.
also feature day rooms on the second and third floors that line the building. In the center is a larger day room with open spaces filled with tables, chairs and living areas so patients can relax outside of their rooms while also using these spaces for therapy. There are no narrow hallways like found in a typical medical building. The incorporation of glass throughout the buildings allows natural light to brighten the interiors. Another unique design feature includes a charting station for the nurses and physical therapy professionals that is centrally located in the physical therapy gyms rather than back at the nurses’ station or in another room. This allows nurses to do charting while staying near the patients. There is also a centralized nursing station located on each of the upper floors centered in the floor plates with patient rooms on either side. Having an ongoing working relationship with the developers creates a synergy that translates across multiple projects and even multiple regions. In addition to the Phoenix and Peoria hospitals, AP and ADI are developing a 47,000-squarefoot hospital in Englewood, Colorado; a 55,617-square-foot hospital in Plano, Texas; and a 50,800-square-foot hospital in Arlington, Texas. As the developer of the project, ADI owns the building and the land, and Allen, Texas-based Novus Rehabilitation Partners will be the end-user. AP’s relationship started with ADI on our first project together in Colorado. AP continues to pride itself on establishing a working relationship with its clients. The plan is to have them return and avoid the pains of finding a new general contractor. It is comfortable working together. It is a relationship that goes beyond building a project to creating two-way communication, which means the company can pick up the phone and call a partner at ADI and have a conversation any time it is warranted. At AP, the culture sets the company apart from other general contractors. While the family owned contractor works in a lot of different regions, having that relationship continue across the Mountain
Aerial image of the completed 51,000-SF inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Phoenix.
States to the Gulf States and Southwest regions is rewarding. It likes to maintain that connection, so the developers and owners can work with us in any region and get the same exceptional product and client experience. Additionally, working as a construction manager at risk (CMAR) means AP is committing to deliver the project within a guaranteed maximum price. So, AP has the full design done in advance and we work with ADI and the end-user, Novus, to improve the facilities as construction moves along. ADI challenges themselves to build beyond the prototypes; they are always looking for ways to make the buildings better. Because AP is building projects with them in multiple regions, we can apply lessons learned through meetings with the design team and end-user. It shares what it has experienced to improve and adapt while addressing challenges to avoid the obstacles of building in different business atmospheres and geographical regions. With the current construction environment of supply chain struggles that everyone in the industry is facing, we have set goals to stay within our time frame and avoid procurement delays of building materials. AP is constantly working to eliminate the supply chain issues. That was really the goal on these projects. Some items are long leads, but AP actively works to combat that. It communicated with ADI that these are the issues it may possibly encounter. AP establishes very early communication with the owner when awarded a project. Building that relationship early creates an atmosphere of problem-solving. AP’s biggest achievement to date is staying on schedule and keeping its original commitment to the owner and not pushing it out for reasons outside of its control. AP establishes how it can get it done and then execute.
Zachary Byard is a Kansas State University graduate and a Certified Healthcare Constructor through the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE). He began his career at Adolfson & Peterson Construction in 2010. You can reach Zac at 602-206-1909 or zbyard@a-p.com
Window Film Depot Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary
Window Film Depot (WFD) recently celebrated its 30th anniversary in the window film industry! FutureVu Brands’ (FVB) President Jeff Franson and WFD’s President Krissy Mosby reflect on their respective companies’ journeys, entrepreneurship, and their experience in the window film industry.
Franson, raised in a successful entrepreneurial family, had a passion for running his own business. He drew from his experiences and determined the life of an entrepreneur offered excitement, freedom, and innovation. “An opportunity presented itself in Atlanta, and I took it. I started to work with my brother in a home services business. Ultimately, we ran across a really cool product: window film; people loved it, and they didn’t know where to buy it.” Franson embraced this gap in the market to build a successful brand.
Garnering immediate success, WFD enabled Franson to turn his passion into profit at the perfect time. The ability to recruit talented individuals was one of the brand’s first major wins. As sales grew, so did the need for more staff. Krissy Mosby, who joined as an intern, initially planned to work in medicine before joining WFD.” I started working answering phones, stuffing envelopes, doing mailers, stuff like that… (By the time) I graduated, I was doing sales, and even managing one of the small accounts we had.”
Franson believed a young, determined team would leverage new technology to help outpace its competitors, marking a foundational growth period for the company. “We were young in an older man’s business, quite frankly,” Jeff remembers, “The internet, early on, was the biggest accelerator of our growth. We employed tools more rapidly than our counterparts.”
When housing crashed, WFD pivoted from residential to commercial business, breeding expansion. Mosby reminisces firsthand how fluctuating markets impacted WFD’s business model, “Back when I joined, our company was very local to Atlanta. We were over 95% residential and started to see a need for a national presence. Fast forward, we’re now over 90% commercial and one of the largest 3M dealers in the country, servicing national accounts.”
Rapid growth led WFD to be recognized as the US’s #1 3M Window Film Dealer. Franson didn’t expect this kind of recognition, but it was a byproduct of WFD’s commitment to its customers. When customer needs shifted, he built sister brands to fulfill demands. “We didn’t see what we thought the market needed, partnered with glazing engineers, and invented retrofit security shields we brand as DefenseLite,” Franson explains. “From there, Impact Security branched off” and became a subsidiary.
From humble beginnings to industry leaders, WFD is a successful business model others seek to replicate. With the launch and acquisition of new businesses including Impact Security and CoolVu, , Franson created FutureVu Brands as a parent (FVB), while WFD continues to operate independently with Mosby as its President.
The past 30 years have proved how innovation continues to overcome adversity, exemplify outstanding leadership, and drive success in the industry. Here’s to another 30 successful years for Window Film Depot! Click here to view full interview.
Jeff Franson Krissy Mosby
