It takes a health village — or district — to support physical fitness

A rendering shows Lee Health Village at Coconut Point.

Image courtesy of Flad Architects

With the new focus on preventive health care and value-based outcomes, health districts and villages appear poised for growth.

Perkins+Will has been among the leaders in designing health districts, which are all about how a hospital or other health care facility blends in with and supports the community by promoting health.

“You’re beginning to see the buildings on health care campuses respond to that difference by thinking more about how the campus integrates into the neighborhood, how it integrates with public transit, how it supports healthier lifestyles for its staff and the communities around it,” says Robin Guenther, sustainable health care design leader, Perkins+Will.

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The global architectural firm is continuing to transform a congested medical corridor in Baton Rouge, La., and all its positive community elements — destination restaurants and shopping, parks and attractive housing — into a health district of an estimated 1,000 acres in scope.  

Perkins+Will has worked with leaders of a dozen major institutions in the city to coordinate zoning for land use and transportation challenges so that the health district will support the economic development of the area.

Lee Health, Fort Myers, Fla., is responding to the emphasis on health management for its retirement population by developing Lee Health Village at Coconut Point in the town of Estero near Fort Myers.

The first phase of the 163,000-square-foot health village will include a healthy lifestyle clinic with 70 exam rooms, an outpatient surgery center and freestanding emergency center, says Dave Kistel, vice president of facilities and support services, Lee Health.  

It is connected to the adjacent community with walkways to promote access to the health village and nearby retail buildings by foot and bike, Kistel says. Kistel believes Coconut Point is the future of care with its objective of providing an abundance of health management options in a village setting.

The next phase of the project calls for construction of a hospital, but the plan is to keep community residents out of it for as long as possible. “You know there's a lot of opportunity for them not to become a patient of a hospital,” he says.