Silling Architects was commissioned by Cabin Creek Health Systems to design a new health clinic to serve the Sissonville, WV community, replacing a facility that was lost to a fire. Our design team was inspired by the support CCHS received from local residents, who donated time, resources, and space to get a temporary clinic operational within days of the loss. Eventually, the Sissonville Health Clinic staff relocated into the former Bonham Elementary School facility which had been abandoned due to repeated flooding. During their short time of occupancy, CCHS was burdened with continued interruption, damage, and stress due to more flooding and the associated clean-up, repair, and restart. Invested in the families of Sissonville, CCHS secured USDA and HRSA funding completed the new 10,600 SF facility located prominently on Route 21 near the town’s core.
Through the perspective of loss and hardship, and with great commitment to serve, the notions of sustainability and resilience have informed the programming and design of the new clinic. A more comprehensive offering of medical assistance and services are being provided, including general medical examination and treatment, behavioral health services, dental treatment, and pharmaceutical care in a consolidated facility. Financial consultation and assistance programs are highlighted in the administrative spaces, and the public areas are anchored by a purposefully multi-use community room space to serve education, training, and outreach needs with video conferencing capabilities to connect to the greater CCHS network – and the world.
The overall building design aesthetic speaks to the duality of the organic natural setting, palette, and tone of the Kanawha Valley against a highly machined, ordered framework symbolic of modern healthcare and medical advancement – all depicted with an underlying warmth responsive to the level of care delivered by Cabin Creek Health Systems to the people of Sissonville.
The building envelope, mechanical systems, and electrical distribution and lighting are designed with higher performance in mind, and the critical systems and spaces in the facility are served by emergency power to allow for continued operation through future natural and synthesized interruptions. Building siting and orientation, as well as fenestration placement and the use of insulated translucent panels maximize interior spatial quality through natural light and view. The community room space anchors the composition at the most public building corner and is expressed uniquely through massing, color, pattern, and materiality.
