For individuals in Licton Springs, an underserved community in northwest Seattle, accessing medical services used to mean traveling long distances to multiple appointments at distant clinics. But in 2015, Neighborcare Health—a nonprofit community health provider that caters to low-income and uninsured clients— set about changing that. Backed by funding from both public and private sources, the organization worked in collaboration with Seattle-based firm NBBJ to build an integrated, patient-focused center that would provide comprehensive care to locals with diverse needs.

Meridian Center for Health, which opened last fall, houses family doctors, dentists, mental health practitioners, and other medical providers under one solar-paneled roof. The building’s versatile design allows patients to get almost all the treatment they need in the same place—a “onestop shop,” says senior associate Brian Uyesugi—while also encouraging collaboration between staff Upon entering the facility, patients encounter an expansive lobby dominated by a large staircase and a wall of reclaimed wood. Senior associate Christina Yates says the unified entryway and reception area was designed “to make sure the patient experience is the same no matter who you are coming to see.”