Architectural Nexus Unveils Design Including Resort Hotel-Style Rooms, Healing Gardens, Health Club and Racquetball Courts

TEMPE, Ariz. (April. 21, 2004) - Architectural Nexus, a principal architecture firm specializing in healthcare, educational and commercial projects, today unveiled the design for the Havasu Community Healthcare Center at a groundbreaking ceremony.

The new 60-bed facility breaks the design tenets of traditional community hospitals with features such as large hotel-style rooms that are larger than normal and built to accommodate the patient's family, to separate public and patient entrances and hallways to ensure the privacy of a patient being transported to and from the operating room. The facility will include an ER, urgent care facility as well as a health club with two racquetball courts.

“The Havasu Community Healthcare Center will be unlike any community hospital in the country. It will provide Western Arizona with unprecedented comfort and service,” said Robert Aitken, AIA, Managing Principal of Architectural Nexus Phoenix. “We approached the design process from the perspective of the patient and worked to ensure that every feature de-institutionalized the experience and promoted hope and healing.”

The patient rooms, which are consistent with a focus on the patient and family care philosophy of design, will feature the look and feel of a resort hotel room and include a sleep area with fold out couches for family members and guests. Large windows will provide natural lights as well as views of Lake Havasu from many of the rooms. The layout of the patient floors were designed with a series of interlocking spaces and living room-type nursing stations at each end. The layout will provide patients with a warm, welcoming environment as opposed to a traditional patient suite with a large nursing desk located in the middle of the floor.

The swivel-shaped exterior, which overlooks Lake Havasu , was designed to maximize space and to accommodate a series of healing gardens which serve as the facility's primary focus and source of orientation.

The Havasu Community Healthcare Center , which will be completed in Fall 2005, will include 244 parking stalls and the capability to expand to double the number of beds according to the demands of the growing community. The facility is being financed by a local physicians group, which will donate the center to the community upon its completion.

About Architectural Nexus
Architectural Nexus is one the Intermountain West's principal architectural firms formed by the merger of Jensen Haslem P.C. and Thomas Petersen Hammond Architects. The Company, with offices in Utah and Arizona, offers sophisticated design and deep technical expertise with specialties in health care, research, education, resort and housing, commercial, religious and governmental projects. With more than 100 dedicated specialists, Architectural Nexus manages projects for a wide variety of companies and organizations including Intermountain Health Care, University of Utah Health Science Campus, Brigham Young University, Granite School District, and Swire Coca-Cola. The Company's signature projects include the Huntsman Cancer Institute, recent addition to Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake Community College Student Pavilion, the University of Utah Eccles Critical Care Pavilion, and the Biomedical Polymers Research Facility. For more information about Architectural Nexus please call 801-474-1400.

Press Contact:
Chris Thomas
801.481.9482