At the heart of Joint Base Andrews, a critical command center for global diplomacy and defense, is a healthcare campus with a mission just as vital: welcoming wounded soldiers home with dignity and providing world-class medical care to those who serve. Over the course of a decade, RLF led the master planning, programming, and full architectural, engineering, and interior design for the new Malcolm Grow Medical Clinics and Surgery Clinic, a 371,000+ SF medical campus that now stands as a symbol of compassion, excellence, and resilience.
As the premier continental U.S. gateway for wounded airmen returning from overseas and a logistical hub supporting the President, Vice President, and high-ranking officials, every aspect of the medical campus needed to reflect both mission-critical functionality and dignified stature. RLF’s comprehensive design solution included a four-story Medical Clinic and Surgery Center, a freestanding two-story Dental Clinic, a new Central Energy Plant, and renovations to existing facilities. Built on a wedge-shaped site within an active medical campus, the project required meticulous phasing strategies and seamless coordination among the Navy, Air Force, NAVFAC Washington, and historic preservation agencies to ensure that critical care operations remained uninterrupted throughout construction.
A centerpiece of the Malcolm Grow Medical Clinics and Surgery Center is its award-winning interior design, honored with the 2021 Interior Design Excellence Award in the Government category. The design embodies a profound commitment to physical healing and emotional restoration through architectural storytelling, intuitive navigation, and meaningful visual connections. At the heart of the experience is a central three-story atrium, where patients and visitors are welcomed into a spacious, light-filled environment that serves as the facility’s primary organizational hub. A whimsical ceiling sculpture, suspended above the grand staircase and visible from every level, acts as a visual anchor so that you always knew where the main entrance to the building was. The atrium’s curved lines and warm wood finishes echo the building’s asymmetrical exterior, promoting calm, familiarity, and a sense of movement guided by nature.
Throughout the facility, wayfinding is seamlessly integrated into every design element to support ease of navigation across the large medical campus. Each floor and clinic is assigned a unique accent color and a memorable National Icon, such as the Statue of Liberty or Lincoln Memorial, providing consistent visual language. Supporting this theme, each clinic’s reception area features an illuminated desk, branded color surround, overhead signage, and a large-scale landscape mural drawn from the region of the featured icon, creating an emotional connection between patients and place. Public corridors and waiting areas are lined with organic floor patterns that act as subtle directional cues, while exterior garden views and interior courtyards offer positive distractions and natural light. These gardens are intentionally positioned to enhance both patient healing and staff wellness, offering glimpses of nature even from inboard rooms such as break areas and conference spaces.
The interior design strategy is organizational while fostering dignity, clarity, and comfort in an environment where every detail is crafted to support those who serve.
Air Force One video clip courtesy of Tech. Sgt. Andrew Enriquez, 113th Wing D.C. Air National Guard via DVIDS
Malcolm Grow Medical Clinics and Surgery Center video clip courtesy of Senior Airman Austin Pate, 316th Wing, Air Force via DVIDS