CATEGORIES

As we remember the anniversary of the devastating F5 tornado that threatened to make the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas a memory, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t heard of the resiliency of its citizens, and the monumental effort to rebuild the rural city—but most people haven’t given much thought to the maintenance and waste management needs of the area. The original Kiowa County Maintenance Facility was completely destroyed by the tornado, along with several other buildings a county needs to adequately maintain its roads and streets. The facility provided key services to Kiowa County, as it not …
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With increased costs facing most business owners, many are scrutinizing their budgets for savings in facility operations. Lowering the energy costs of buildings is an important part of reducing these expenses. Energy-efficiency is not limited to new construction; there are numerous strategies that can be applied to existing buildings. Reducing the need for electric lighting, using less water, plugging leaks in building walls, and adding insulation are four simple things to consider. Outside the building, proper site planning and landscape design are other things which may come into play. To implement an effective energy-savings strategy for existing buildings, initiating a …
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After one of two hospitals in Great Bend announced plans to provide only outpatient services, administrators at Great Bend Regional Hospital began to plan. Realizing that a demand in inpatient services was imminent, they began to explore plans for expansion. Hospital administrators turned to GLMV Architecture’s Ryan Craft to master plan a series of additions, upgrades and changes throughout their campus to accommodate the anticipated patient increase. Ryan and the team are working with the hospital to design new spaces and upgrades and are also assisting in equipment placement and analyzing the workflow in the surgical suites. “The hardest part …
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When you think “trendy,” older people might not be the first thing you think of.  Yet, Thomas P. Montgomery, Vice President for GLMV Architecture and a specialist in designing environments for the elderly, can tell you that old age today is not what it used to be. As the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) closes in on retirement, the United States will experience the largest elderly population it has ever seen. Currently, one in four Americans is part of this demographic group, and boomers are expected to make as large an impact on long-term retirement living as …
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Thomas P. Montgomery’s professional future may have been decided when he was very young during visits to a nursing home where his grandmother lived.  “They weren’t great places back then,” Montgomery recalls.  As an adult, he would change all that. Montgomery, Vice President of GLMV Architecture, specializes in designing environments for the elderly that allow residents to make themselves completely at home.  In the past, long-term residential facilities housed large groups of people in one space and were heavily centralized.  “There was one huge dining room and one huge common room,” Montgomery recalls. “Residents often had to have a roommate. …
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The Via Christi Cancer Institute would be created from two thirds of the seventh floor of a busy hospital, explains Ryan Craft, Project Designer for GLMV. “We had to find the best way to separate ourselves and the construction mess from the rest of the facility.” The solution, implemented in collaboration with the project’s general contractor, was to build a temporary construction elevator and fasten it to the outside of the building. Seventh floor windows were turned into doors to allow access to the new “express elevator.” As a result of innovation and coordination of the project team, “All the …
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How we make accessibility . . . child’s play When the Sunrise Rotary Club decided to take on the design and construction of a $1.5 million boundless playground as a centennial project, GLMV Architecture stepped up to make it a reality. A boundless playground is one that is entirely barrier free.  It is equally accessible to all children, regardless of age, or physical, cognitive, developmental or sensory disabilities.  When GLMV took the project on in 2006, the concept was new to the area.  The Sunrise playscape was designed to be 70 percent accessible to disabled children or adults, when other …
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