Banner Health Behavioral Health Hospital Inpatient Tower

Issues surrounding access to high quality mental health care are critical and affect nearly every American family. One-in-four Americans will experience a psychiatric disorder each year, yet the need for quality behavioral healthcare is dramatically under-served. This 78,000 square foot, two-story psychiatric inpatient tower includes 96 single-patient rooms in four units and was designed to facilitate the delivery of state-of-the-art behavioral healthcare for an adult population. With a variety of social gathering areas, activity spaces, and staff areas, the building features indoor and outdoor recreational therapy spaces, a service kitchen, a central patient dining room, and a central pharmacy (retail and inpatient).

The design team focused on creating a welcoming, familiar, and home-like environment while keeping the safety of patients, staff, visitors, and the surrounding neighborhood as the foremost consideration in every design decision, from site planning to detailing and product selection. The building’s design has been optimized to maximize daylighting of social and activity spaces, as well as corridors to exceed the performance of ASHRAE 90.1 by 10%. Challenges included a contained site, with height and zoning restrictions, a long public boundary on a busy pedestrian and vehicular corridor, as well as an existing campus circulation scheme.