Charlotte-based Childress Klein and Cambridge Healthcare Solutions of Vienna, Virginia, have been awarded the 2017 John L. Martin Partnered Project of the Year Award, in the category of Buildings/Public Infrastructure Projects between $25M and $250M, by the International Partnering Institute. The project that earned them the accolade was the VA Charlotte Health Care Center, which they completed in 2016.

Childress Klein-Cambridge teamed with RPA Design P.C. and J.E. Dunn Construction Group, and with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs used Neal Flesner and Ventura Consulting throughout the process. The outpatient center is to-date the largest VA health facility in the United States, augmenting the Salisbury VA Health Care System, which serves about 94,000 veterans per year.

According to Cambridge President Michael Scott, the developers employed innovations such as BIM modeling for real-time permitting, and the final product likewise represents innovations in VA design, such as putting related parts of the facility adjacent to each other in ways that are more efficient, and as time passes, flexible enough to be modified without major renovations.