California medical center breaks ground on behavioral health facility for both adults and children

In San Jose, Calif., Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) has broken ground on a new behavioral health facility: the Child, Adolescent, and Adult Behavioral Health Services Center. The facility will open to patients in fall 2025.

Designed by HGA, the center will bring together under one roof Santa Clara County’s behavioral health offerings, including Emergency Psychiatric Services and Urgent Care. The new facility aims to fill a regional service gap as the first Santa Clara County-operated inpatient facility specifically for children and adolescents in need of behavioral health care, and it will have a separate floor for adults.

With the three-story, 207,000-sf behavioral health facility, SCVMC will expand its current adult behavioral health programs to include co-located outpatient and inpatient services for children and adolescents in an age-appropriate treatment environment.

Key spaces include a 77-bed inpatient behavioral health hospital that will serve adults and minors on different floors, separate outpatient urgent care for minors and adults, emergency psychiatric services with separate ambulance entry bays, treatment spaces for minors and adults, and a shared pharmacy. The facility also will have administrative offices, a new 700-car parking structure, and a pedestrian skyway bridge connecting to the existing emergency department.

Throughout the design phase, HGA met with multiple user groups three days per week. HGA researchers studied the impact of improved patient privacy and outdoor access on patient behavior and the need for restraint. The facility’s design prioritizes connections to nature with separate outdoor activity and recreation spaces for each inpatient unit and for Emergency Psychiatric Services.

On the Building Team:
Owner: County of Santa Clara Health System
Design architect: HGA, supported by The Cuningham Group (associate architect and medical planner)
Architect of record: HGA
MEP engineer: Arup
Structural engineer: Arup
General contractor/construction manager: Webcor, SBay Construction, and Thompson Builders

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center breaks ground on a behavioral health facility for both adults and children. Rendering courtesy HGA

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center breaks ground on Child, Adolescent, and Adult Behavioral Health Services Center, by HGA

For most of human history, design has mostly considered “typical users” who are fully able-bodied without clinical or emotional disabilities. The problem with this approach is that it offers a limited perspective on how space can positively or negatively influence someone based on their physical, mental, and sensory abilities.

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