New Meadows Long Term Care Facility

“The Meadows” is a major regional, licensed long-term care provider for elderly and disabled residents providing specialty services for dementia care in both elderly and younger residents. Vigil & Associates completed this new construction project in Las Vegas, NM, in three phases over the course of more than a decade. This project was a major undertaking for the State of New Mexico and had an extensive positive impact on the Las Vegas and surrounding communities.

Careful attention was paid to ensure that the design was scaled appropriately for a residential type use, and fit into the community and the beautiful northern New Mexico landscape. The sawtooth style residence wings ensure that all resident rooms receive access to natural daylighting and views, oriented in a semi private manner which breaks down the scale of the facility. These wings are also used to frame, larger open courtyard spaces that allow for gathering areas for the residents to enjoy the views and weather in a secure manner. All phases of the project were a single-story design to avoid ramps, elevators and stairs. It also allowed better daylighting via skylights and light wells, and provided equal access to outdoor recreation areas for all residents.

Resident/patient safety and comfort were key drivers of the project and drove many design decisions — with clear wayfinding, inviting colors and finishes — to allow patients a sense of freedom with exterior courtyards and various spaces while designing systems that prevented wandering. Clear sightlines and staff workstations located at key, strategic locations helped to ensure that the interior and exterior environments are welcoming, secure and easy to navigate.

Phase I consisted of one 36-bed residential wing and the facility’s central area that included the main entrance, common spaces and service areas. The central area also has administration, public and support spaces, including business and nurse’s offices, a training room, staff locker and lounge areas, a gift shop, library and wellness clinic. Phase 2 was designed to replace the existing 52-bed Meadows Rest Home and the 110-bed Ponderosa Nursing Home located at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute. This phase included two 36-bed residential wings connected to Phase 1 via a north/south corridor. Phase 3 added an additional 54 beds. Each wing has its own dining room, activity room, family rooms, bathing suites and secure courtyard. While the physical space for the complete service plant was included in Phase 1, equipment was added as the number of beds increased.

The three phases of construction total over 137,852 SF. The building structure, foundation, envelope and systems were all fine tuned to the northern New Mexico climate to ensure that the facility will continue to serve the community and remain operational without disruption for decades to come. This project was designed in collaboration with Boulder Associates, Boulder, CO.

Phase 1 LEED Gold Certified
Phase 2 LEED Silver Certified