Department of Veterans Affairs System

Jensen + Partners created a 20-year Master Plan for the Department of Veterans Affairs Menlo Park Campus. Plans for the potential upgrade, and consolidation of the campus were developed to enhance the VA patient experience and care environment.

The Menlo Park Division is part of a network of campuses in the California Bay Area. The campus itself is 96.2 acres with 1.1 million square feet of buildings, which include outpatient care, mental health, inpatient rehabilitation, rehabilitation therapy, community living centers, support administration programs.

After a full assessment of existing conditions, including program, operational costs, and physical conditions, Jensen + Partners is developing alternative concepts and recommendations for the potential upgrade, development or consolidation of the campus to enhance the VA patient experience of care.

Jensen + Partners developed a 5-year Master Plan for the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System in Reno, Nevada. Growth and program evolution at the VA Reno Campus brought to light the need to assess which functional programs should remain on campus to support inpatient services and which should be evaluated as candidates to be moved off-station. The 5-year Master Plan developed alternatives and recommendations which include expanding services to meet projected increases in patient workload, addressing critical infrastructure improvements and minimizing the impact on day to day operations of the existing facility.

To improve the efficiency of the campus to accommodate growth, recommendations were made to acquire critical parcels for expansion, to demolish underutilized buildings and construct additional parking structures. To improve program synergies and decompress the campus, outpatient services were recommended to be located off-campus.

Implementation of the Master Plan recommendations are currently underway.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System engaged Jensen + Partners to update its 20-year campus master plan by integrating previous master plans with current and future operations initiatives and campus improvements. A key goal was to create a more unified, cohesive campus that supports and enhances the VA’s clinical, research and teaching missions. Working closely with campus leaders, including administrators, physicians, other healthcare staff, and researchers, Jensen + Partners addressed a broad range of program needs and campus enhancement strategies into an overall building and site plan for the 92-acre campus.

Jensen + Partners analyzed anticipated building projects and operational improvements incorporating Lean strategies to improve the efficiency, coherence, and organization of facilities throughout the campus. This operational focus was supplemented by synergistic proposals for site logistics, landscape, way-finding, pedestrian and vehicular movement, and parking.

Jensen + Partners was engaged in 2016 to provide a campus parking assessment and to investigate opportunities for adding parking on the Fresno VA campus. Jensen + Partners considered and compared three alternate locations on the campus and utilized choosing-by-advantage decision making to recommend the preferred plan for further development.

The new parking structure will provide the facility users with safe and convenient access to parking, and will be established as a prominent, aesthetically attractive asset to the site, and will fully integrate into the facility master plan. The location of the parking structure creates the shortest pedestrian travel distance to facility entry points, and preserves the existing trees located in the southern portion of the site.

The structure was designed with all applicable regulatory and jurisdictional codes, VA design standards, criteria, and requirements, all while remaining within the established budget.