The Culinary Health Fund launched an initiative to bridge the growing demand for healthcare services of the local community in Las Vegas. Their primary objective was to establish a clinic network providing residents with essential medical services, characterized by world-class facility design and an exceptional standard of care. To explore the idea behind these spaces, we spoke with SmithGroup interior designers Axie Tomasi and Maria Delasotta about the team’s approach to such a vital healthcare facility.

“The goal really is to make sure that [Vegas residents] have accessible healthcare that feels elevated like the spaces that they are used to. The clinics are designed and intended to be a one-stop shop, from primary care to a pharmacy, dental care, physical therapy, a place where patients can go for multiple appointments, and bring their families along with them,” says Delasotta. That standard set the tone for every decision that followed.

SmithGroup’s designers had spent more than a decade working on healthcare projects. They understood, better than most, what the work actually asks of a designer. “We get to help impact the space and make it beautiful and inviting and comfortable for them to be in.”, explains Tomasi. The designers heavily considered every aspect that a patient will encounter in the design process. 

The design challenge they kept returning to was one they knew well: “How can we take a space that needs to function really well, but make it beautiful for both staff and their patients?” In healthcare, function is the baseline, and the aesthetics are built around it. 

The answer, for this project, began with biophilic design. “I’m really passionate about making the space feel like you want to be there. I think biophilic design has really entered the market in the healthcare sector.”, Delasotta states. The design team built on that foundation, with wood tones becoming the source of warmth within the interiors, concentrated at check-in stations and department entry points, the moments where a patient first enters the clinic. 

Partnering with Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects and installer Southwest Specialty Contractors, the team moved into material selection with two non-negotiables in hand, the space could not look like a hospital, and it could not perform like anything less than one. 

It was at that intersection, warmth and clinical performance, that Longboard entered the project. The team selected Longboard’s 6″ Smooth Plank for interior wall panels and ceiling applications throughout the facility. “It is a product that has really beautiful finishes and tones to it, while being that durable product that we can rely on in a healthcare space.”, exclaims Axie. 

The design team integrated Dauntless, Longboard’s open-joint aluminum baffle system, to define specific ceiling features. Reflecting on this choice, Tomasi noted, “Dauntless allowed us the opportunity to provide an aesthetic shift in denoting some of those certain areas,” illustrating how textural variation serves as a wayfinding tool. By transitioning from smooth planks to these baffle structures, the architecture shows the change in environment with the same clarity as traditional signage.

The team was “really looking for that healthy indoor quality materials that actually meet that level of infection prevention that a healthcare space is looking for.” Longboard’s aluminum systems held to both standards across every application.

Healthcare design, meets people in a difficult moment and gives them a space that feels like someone thought about them. For the SmithGroup designers, that is ultimately what the work demands: “Really shifting the goals of these spaces to look beautiful as well as provide efficient, good care.” At the Culinary Health Fund clinics, that intention is visible in every finish, every material transition, and every surface that the patient and their family interacts with.