Lancaster, Calif., is located in the windy, high desert region of Antelope Valley, a fact that made the design and construction of the new Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley Medical Offices a challenging undertaking—especially in light of the balance that had to be struck between the area’s extreme weather conditions and the provider’s goal to ultimately create a LEED Platinum-certified facility that achieves net-zero energy use.
Antelope Valley, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, made sense as a location, though, an area where Kaiser Permanente could accommodate its growing number of members in Lancaster and surrounding communities (114,000 members are based there currently). The building is now one of five Kaiser Permanente facilities in the region. As a specialty MOB, many members are generally there on an ongoing basis to receive care and treatment for chronic needs.
“The nearest Kaiser Permanente hospital is one hour away,” says Pat Reyes-Cappeli, architect and director of design for Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California region and the project director for the Antelope Valley project. The building, she says, “brings specialty care into people’s neighborhoods, (into) a remote location.”
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