Keith Corporation
Wake Internal Medicine
Wake Internal Medicine Consultants (WIMC) are a multi-specialty independent physicians group that can trace their Raleigh roots back to 1938 and whose mission is to provide consistent, high quality medical care to their community based on the principles of fiscal responsibility, respect and dignity.
Since 1985, WIMC had been located in a nondescript multi-tenant office building on a busy road, with clinics spread across different floors and confined to floor plates that were not flexible, did not allow for growth and no longer fit for purpose. Indeed, during visioning workshops the group informed the design team that in patient surveys they scored very highly for the care that was provided, but poorly with regards to the environment in which it was being delivered; the building was preventing them from meeting their core tenets both for their patients and their staff.
LOCATION: Raleigh, NC
SIZE: 48,000 SF
COMPLETED: 2023
PHOTOGRAPHER: Keith Isaacs
Community Care
Working with The Keith Corporation, WIMC sought to develop a greenfield site located less than half a mile from their existing facility. This new 48,000 SF MOB had to bring together their multi-faceted practice in an environment reflective of the high quality of care being provided and be a bold statement speaking to their strong independent identity, whilst also being considerate to the economical constraints of the physician owners. Furthermore, continuing to be embedded within the neighborhood was critical in order that WIMC could better serve their existing patients and reach out to a new generation within the community.
The new infill site is surrounded by residences, single story commercial buildings and a church. This context, coupled with the need for economy and internal program flexibility, led to the building being developed as a two-story rectangular masonry box, pulled to the front of the site to actively engage the street at its short end and leverage the high visibility branding opportunity as it turned the corner back into the parking lot.
Curating a Health Hub
Programmatically, the building provides clinical space for Internal Medicine, Women’s Health, Gastroenterology, Sports Medicine, Radiology and Nuclear medicine which includes X-Ray and CT, as well as on-site blood draw processing and pathology labs. Clinics are pod based with semi-open centralized staff support areas to ensure easy wayfinding and provide a sense that patients can both feel seen, whilst staff maintain a level of privacy for focused work.
Centralized registration is accessed directly off the main entry at first floor and is stacked on the floor above, with wood ceilings and walls highlighting these as special places and visually integrated into the overall design. An open, wood-paneled stairwell connects the floors making wayfinding intuitive and encouraging the use of the stair for both visitors and staff. Centralized waiting is filled with natural light and views to the outside; the need for patient privacy tempered by the screened arcade at ground floor and the integrated tree pattern at second floor glazing which gives the effect of being within the tree canopy.
