Arizona Department of Veterans Services - Arizona State Veteran Home

This new nursing facility in Yuma, Arizona, will give veterans a new home to age with civility and dignity. The new home houses four, 16-bed long-term care units and one 12-bed memory care unit. Our team designed features that new residents would value, with precision and craftsmanship as priorities. Every detail is chosen specifically for the people and place.

The facility is laid out as a series of ‘homes’ along an organizing spine, following the Small Home model developed for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The design concept focuses on the formation of connections—to the past, the outdoors, and other residents. The design explores the history of place and honoring the veterans’ sacrifice. Place-driven architecture meant we were responsive to local historic building methods to deal with the arid climate to create a place that was harmonious with its environment.

As a result, each home prioritizes relationships of its residents. Access to the outdoors is emphasized with indoor sight lines leading to the courtyards and porches, where residents can connect with nature and watch the air traffic of the nearby Air Force base. Common patios, outdoor nature paths, and community gathering areas offer different scales of connection.

The design connects individuals to Arizona, a state historically marked by the five C’s: copper, climate, citrus, cotton, and cattle. The facility provides a sense of home for the residents by bringing those elements and themes intrinsic to the identity of the place into the design. The design also taps into local and historic building methods to respond to the desert climate, creating a place that is harmonious with its environment. 

Each home has its own personality, and just like no two houses are alike in any given neighborhood, the same is true of the Veterans Services Homes, providing our country’s most courageous men and women with a serene and distinctive place to live.