Rehabilitation Center for Wounded Veterans Taking Shape at Fort Sam Houston

SmithGroup has designed the Center for the Intrepid's National Armed Forces Physical Rehabilitation Center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The selection was made by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a nonprofit organization chaired by Arnold Fisher, a principal of New York's Plaza Construction and a noted philanthropist. The four-story, 65,000-sf center will provide patients with severe extremity injuries, amputations, and burns sustained during service in Iraq the opportunity to regain their pre-injury abilities. It is located at Fort Sam Houston.

The $35 million facility will accommodate sophisticated amputee rehabilitation technology through the use of advanced prosthetics, computerized and video monitoring for biomechanical studies, virtual reality, robotics, and simulators. In addition to the clinical areas, the design incorporates advanced physical training areas, an indoor pool with rehabilitative wave rides, a running track, a climbing wall, gait lanes, and obstacle simulations.

In addition, the facility will have two "Fisher Houses," where the families of military patients can be housed at virtually no cost while visiting their loved ones at the rehabilitation facility.

Skanska USA of Virginia Beach, Va., is the construction manager. Syska Hennessy Group of San Diego is providing MEP engineering services. Structural engineering services are being provided by Cagley & Associates of Rockville, Md. SmithGroup is the architect, interior designer, and landscape architect on the project.

The program and conceptual design for the center was developed in six weeks. It is projected to be ready by January 2007.