Along with our 2024 Hospital Design360 grand prize winners, dvm360 has also named 8 merit award recipients. This year, the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix, Arizona; Chi Animal Hospital in Reddick, Florida; and Partners Animal Hospital West Loop in Chicago, Illinois, were merit winners for facilities larger than 8000 sq ft.

All Creatures Great and Small in Downers Grove, Illinois, West Davis Veterinary Center in Davis, California, and Red Barn Animal Hospital in Gilberts, Illinois, won for facilities ranging from 3500 to 8000 sq ft.

Lastly, Vetique in Chicago, Illinois, and Pure Paws Veterinary Care in New York, New York, won for spaces smaller than 3500 sq ft.

Hospitals larger than 8000 sq ft

Arizona Humane Society

Photo courtesy of Arizona Humane Society

Arizona Humane Society ICU

Located on a campus of over 72,000 sq ft, the Arizona Humane Society complex contains state-of-the-art medical, adoption, and education spaces that allow the team to provide the best care to pets in need and help them find their forever homes. To create the best hospital for their staff, patients, clients, and community, the team dedicated time to tour animal shelters that opened their doors to them. During the tours, the team was able to handpick features and aspects of different hospitals to create spaces in their hospital, such as 11 animal ambulances to transport sick and injured pets; and a small, dedicated laboratory. They also have a supply space for parvovirus-infected puppies with a separate entrance and an outside area, enabling infected animals to go outside without the risk of spreading the disease.

Besides gleaning ideas from the animal shelter visits, Steven R. Hansen, DVM, president and CEO of Arizona Humane Society, took inspiration from Disney after touring its facility years ago. He created a viewing area of the surgical suite where people who are on community tours of the hospital can see animals being cared for in real time.

Through the hospital’s design, the Arizona Humane Society can continue its mission of educating the public on animal welfare issues. The updated complex also helps the hospital treat the massive influx of pets they see regularly. Hansen told dvm360 exclusively that the society’s team was able to get almost 1000 animals adopted within 10 days. The campus also has an onsite adoption area where treated animals can be taken into a kennel for community members to visit and possibly adopt.

Chi Animal Hospital

Photos courtesy of Chi Animal Hospital

Chi Animal Hospital opted for an open floor plan to facilitate teamwork and create a calm and welcoming environment. The hospital also opted not to have a traditional waiting room so they can escort pets directly to an exam room to help minimize their stress and noise. For Chi Animal Hospital, noise control was crucial; their walls are triple insulated, and offsite phone answer systems help reduce stress-inducing sounds. The recovery wards have sound-dampening glass walls that allow pets to see what is happening and quietly hear staff but not be disturbed.

The hospital also serves as a teaching hospital for Chi University and regularly hosts tours for veterinary professionals from around the globe. The hospital’s design allows those professionals to see how seriously the facility considers staff and client well-being, enabling them to leave with ideas of how to make their own clinics less stressful. The hospital also contains smart speakers to enable seamless communication between staff and clients without leaving pets alone. Along with the details for the medical spaces, the team created a comfort room with a Zen garden that serves as a serene place for end-of-life care. The hospital also focused on being environmentally friendly with solar panels, dimmable LED lighting, and motion sensors to promote sustainability and well-being.

Partners Animal Hospital West Loop

When Partners Animal Hospital West Loop was selecting a site, the team found it challenging to f ind one that would ease traffic, make parking less difficult, and have fewer space limitations for staff and clients. However, the team found a site that met all the needs of community and staff, including space to perform surgeries, grooming, and dentistry procedures, and with a major bonus—onsite parking.

The 2-story building was designed to have one floor for hospitalized patients and the other for outpatient care to help ease the stress of patients and staff. The team also built a dog run, grooming cages, and cage banks enclosed in separate rooms on the second floor. To create a space that enhances efficiency, the team focused on traffic flow that gives staff access to the pharmacy from exam rooms, a hallway, and a waiting room. The team also wanted a separate exit for the comfort room, which is rare in the Chicago area. The exit can also serve as an entrance for pets suspected of having infectious diseases so they can be examined without crossing paths with other patients.

Community satisfaction is essential to the team, who wanted to ensure their design features addressed their concerns, the top 2 being odor and noise. The team used artificial turf for dogs to relieve themselves, and they patrol the block twice a day to clean up any stray dog waste. The team also secures the parking lot overnight and uses cameras to monitor the building, the alley, and the front street to help support safety efforts in the community.

Facilities measuring 3500 to 8000 sq ft

All Creatures Great and Small

Photo courtesy of All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small reception area

What distinguishes All Creatures Great and Small is the way it brings the home to its clinic. Owner Andrew Eisenberg, DVM, explained that the goal was to build a clinic inside a modern home. To do this, the team modeled the exterior design of the hospital after the styles of neighboring houses. The building also has a front porch/patio and other landscape features that contribute to giving the practice a house-like exterior. With tile that mimics a hardwood floor, a windowed fireplace and chimney at the front of the building, and a drop ceiling with finished wood beams to mimic an exposed wood beam home style, the hospital’s reception area emits a unique “living room” feel. The clinic’s reception also displays a feature wall that uses home-style finishing like shiplap. The vision here was to give the wall a higher end finish appearance, according to Eisenberg.

In the building’s main entrance, there is a water mirror and a beverage station in the lobby beneath a custom mural commissioned by local Chicago artist Anne Leuck. The artwork shows household pets of Eisenberg and Ken Eisenberg, DVM, and animals who have lived at the practice. Moreover, the clinic has a “frame” television in the lobby that displays rotating photographs of pets submitted by clients; as well as pets that have passed away, as a form of memorialization.

West Davis Veterinary Center

At West Davis Veterinary Center, the team put a lot of thought into the design of the space to make trips to the veterinarian less stressful for everyone. They created separate entrances for dogs and cats, with dedicated exam rooms, spaces, and treatment areas. The center’s cat hospital has exam tables with a cat-sized depression, a cat window walkway, warmer temperatures within the rooms, and cat housing with an optional outside view. The dog side has exam rooms that open to the outdoors, and dogs can enter through the waiting room or go directly into the exam rooms. The team sometimes uses garden areas for canine patients, a solution that came about during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other unique design features at West Davis Veterinary Center include the veterinarian office at the center of the hospital so the team can see treatment areas as needed, a warmed floor cage for post operation patient recovery, and glass for sound control that does not obstruct the view of patients who may be in distress. The onsite pharmacy has a small glass door that allows the receptionists to ask the team questions directly if needed. The hospital also created a space for technicians to have a moment of quiet and enjoy the natural light featured in most of the hospital, except for the bathrooms, laundry, and radiology rooms.

Red Barn Animal Hospital

Owner Katie Stover, DVM, thought multiple steps ahead when creating her hospital. She aimed to upgrade the hospital’s first location and build Red Barn Animal Hospital with intended expansion space. This plan will enable her and her team to meet the evolving needs of their community by having space for future additional exam rooms, treatment spaces, boarding and grooming facilities, specialized rehabilitation services, and a pet exercise area.

The current hospital uses soundproofing in its exam rooms to reduce stress and contain noise. It has separate areas for feline patients that contain hiding spots and a quiet environment to help improve their overall care. The team also put its full-service surgical suite in the back corner of the hospital, which has a dedicated preparation area and surgical supply storage space to help prevent contamination from nonsterile procedures or staff and pets from walking through the area.

The hospital’s intensive care unit was built with a sizable 2-way window to enable close monitoring of patients without increasing stimulation, and their onsite isolation ward prevents disease from sick animals from spreading throughout the hospital. Outside medical areas, the clinic’s spacious upstairs gives the team space for bonding activities, plus a view of the community surroundings.

Hospitals smaller than 3500 sq ft

Vetique

Giving their clinic a boutique style and feel, the owners of Vetique created a place to provide comfort and support for everyone who walks in the door. Their most notable feature is a wine bar where they have partnered with a fellow women-run business to provide Pawsecco for pets and other nonalcoholic and alcoholic drinks for clients. The exam rooms are decorated to represent past and present pets.

“We just wanted to change the culture of [corporate veterinary clinics],” Jessica Trice, dvm, cofounder, said in a previous interview with dvm360. “A lot of times, owners are nervous, and when the owners are nervous because their pets are sick…they visit the vet. So we wanted to…calm them [and] make them feel at ease so that their pets could feel that way as well. [Pets] feed off their owner’s emotions, so when it comes to wining and dining, [we give] owners some wine and some spa-like environment. It creates that relaxation for everyone.”

Besides their wine bar staple piece, the Vetique team decorated the ceilings with large gold chandeliers leading clients to the exam rooms, with “2 grand Sputnik statement pieces” resting over the receptionist area. For staff wellness, they have a large flat-screen television for staff to watch during breaks and a Peloton bike to promote health. Team members also can use the comfort room, which contains mood lighting, speakers, and candles.

Pure Paws Veterinary Care

Pure Paws Veterinary Care, our final 2024 merit winner, renovated the first floor of a 9-floor high-rise building in the middle of New York City. The team focused on a clean and simple design featuring ceiling treatments and a tile focal point at the coffee station. They took inspiration from the colors of the Hudson River to provide a tranquil place for clients and their pets on one of New York’s busiest streets.

To help keep the hospital peaceful, the team designed a sound wall from floor to ceiling separating the back and front of the house to minimize noise. The surgical suites were built to comply with rigorous sterile standards and protocols, and there are no horizontal surfaces on which dust and dirt can accumulate. The isolation rooms are separate and have separate entrances to prevent the spread of disease; they are also negatively pressurized to keep germs from spreading throughout the hospital. Additionally, the walls in the clinic were designed to be durable and scrubbable for intense cleaning procedures.

The clinic’s walls contain pet-friendly photographs throughout the 5 exam rooms, back-of-house treatment spaces, dental treatment rooms, and other spaces. Although the clinic is small, its design enables clients, patients, and staff to move through the space comfortably and avoid any layout headaches.