Dewberry Selected to Design California Health Admin Facility

By Eric Althoff

MODESTO, Calif.—Fairfax, Va.-based design firm Dewberry has been selected by civic authorities in Stanislaus County, Calif., to design a new public health and administration building for the county’s Health Services Agency.

The 45,000-square-foot, two-story new building, set to be built on a parcel of land owned by Stanislaus County, will house certain county operations and also will have room for future expansion as well.

Dewberry’s duties on the new county health facility will entail program development, site selection and verification, conceptual design, schematic design, and bridging design and documentation.  And, in a sign of where the healthcare building trades find themselves in 2020, Dewberry’s design for the new country edifice will incorporate spaces laid out specifically for minimal social distancing measures.

Furthermore, Dewberry is working with the Health Services Agency and Public Health Administration of Stanislaus County to collaborate on best practices for working socially distant, particularly in a county health setting.  The three bodies are sharing their experiences of 2020 in working on the new facility.

Dewberry’s other recent healthcare projects include the four-story Tandy Medical Academic Building near Tulsa, Oklahoma, which falls under the umbrella of the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS) system.

Stanislaus County, located in the Central Valley, has been hit hard in the current wave of coronavirus cases, with nearly 13,000 positive cases and just over 200 deaths.  Cases have spiked throughout the Golden State in July and August, which led Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a second statewide shutdown this summer.

No date has yet been announced for the beginning of construction on the county building, nor a projected completion timeline.