A ribbon cutting ceremony with Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, and other State Officials acknowledged the completion of the sixteen month project located at the Tucson Veteran's Services Hospital Campus. The event honored Veterans and dedicated the new 120 bed Veteran's Home on the Tucson VA Hospital campus.

The project was built by SDB in a design-build partnership with Orcutt|Winslow Architecture. The 130,000-square foot building, located on the southwest corner of the Tucson Veteran's Hospital Campus, is a hub of activity and serves as a central location for the Veteran's licensed skilled nursing facility. Amenities of the new home include private rooms, full baths, and selective dining in a homelike environment with supporting primary care services, supporting physical therapy, pathology labs and the like.

In addition to administrative space, the new Veteran's Home features three separate wings complete with dining centers, game rooms, social facilities, a full service bar, and numerous gardens including a memory garden for Alzheimer's patients. The new Veteran's Home, which features an outdoor terrace, also offers stunning views of the Catalina Mountains, Tucson City-scape and miles of Arizona desert.

The Veteran's Home was funded in part by a federal-state partnership with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs approving a $17.1 million grant which funded approximately 65 percent of the total costs for the $26.4 million facility.

The $26.4 million design-build initiative, led by SDB Inc., consisted of more than ten acres of major site improvements such as infrastructure, landscaping, and the construction of the facility. Though initially aiming for LEED Silver certification, the facility exceeded the Arizona Veteran's Administration's goal and is currently under review for LEED Gold certification.

"Through a successfully collaborative design-build program, the Arizona Department of Veteran's Services, Veteran's Home was able to open its doors ahead of schedule and present our Veteran's with an exceptional, comfortable and safe home in a caring community. This project has exceeded all expectations!" Said Homer Rodgers, the Assistant Deputy Director who supervises the home.

The SDB design-build team used a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to manage the Building Information Modeling (BIM) and LEED components to ensure minimal campus impact and create a consistent and integrated approach to successfully deliver this project.