The new Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home (HVH) Community Living Center is the largest community within the Pennsylvania system, with 424 beds. It sits on a 365-acre campus with a robust history and infrastructure that dates back to 1904.

This pilot project envisions a design that will consolidate care within a single 180,000 sf state-of-the-art center that will provide improved quality of life for residents, increased operational efficiency for HVH staff, and decreased life cycle costs for the Department of Military & Veterans Affairs.

The CLC is organized into eight neighborhoods of 24 residents, and based on the high percentage of residents requiring dementia care, all neighborhoods are designed to provide the necessary care. The campus and residential home-like environments will allow for independence, wellness, social interaction, and activities while also providing dedicated spaces for privacy or family gatherings. The new consolidated community centralizes food services, administration, and support services.

The project’s design was completed through a LEAN Integrated, Target Value Design process that serves to surpass expectations in process and design solutions. This required a robust project management methodology that is embedded in LEAN principles and design thinking and focuses on the end users’ defined value. Stakeholder engagement activities were completed at every level from residents, to support staff, to facility management to give all stakeholders a voice in the design.