Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center

Project Description
Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center’s new patient tower and the newly renovated space in the existing hospital was a design/build project by CSB. This project was set in a remote location in Arizona two hours away in a small town called Globe. Costs were kept to a minimum through effective on-site visits and Go-To-Meetings with contractor and client. The 68,000 square foot, two-story patient tower and an additional 14,000 square feet of renovations was completed in June 2016.

In Depth Description of Services Provided
CSB provided a complete scope of work from designing the sign system, programming the wayfinding strategy, fabricating and installing both interior and exterior sign package.
Like all our Design/Build projects, our first step in the Design Process is the Research/Planning stage. Our project manager and environmental graphic designer had several meetings with the stakeholders on site. The result of these pre-design meetings helps establish the scope of work, the problem statement, and the framework for the wayfinding strategy.

Before any schematic drawings and programming begins our project team develops a strategy to solve their previous exterior wayfinding problems. Cobre Valley originally had exterior vehicular directional signs with dozens of Doctors and Clinics listed. These directional signs to their additional buildings for clinics were illegible and dysfunctional. Not only were the signs difficult to read, the buildings were not easily identified. This problem was solved by developing a strategy by identifying each building by a letter address that was very simple and very legible. Visitors and patients find their way simply by following easy to read exterior signs to the addresses they are given. Building letter addresses are in alphabetical order on initial approach giving anyone a natural understanding where each building is located.
Creating a sense of place that spoke to Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center’s mission of local health care that serves the region with quality, efficiency and compassion led our team to develop the look and feel of their interior signage and exterior building identification and wayfinding.

Cobre in Spanish means copper. Although copper has a small presence in their printed logo we developed exterior building identification that emphasized the color of copper. As patients and visitors approach the hospital they are welcomed day and night with a 8′ copper finished logo creating a true sense of arrival. The logo at night is stunning due to the LED halo lit channel letters.

Once the design and wayfinding strategies were in place the next step of the design process was providing schematic conceptional drawings for both interior and exterior signage by the lead environmental graphic designer as well as first draft wayfinding solutions based on the established research and problem-solving.
Once the appropriate stakeholders approved our designs and strategy a complete design package was developed. During this phase, CSB provided paint samples, cut vinyl samples and interior room sign prototypes.

The final phase of the design process included installation guides and location plans with detailed illustrations and photo overlays of each exterior sign for install reference. These renderings allowed for easy approval and installation.
Signs were built by CSB’ in-house fabrication department. Our In-house fabrication department and project team worked closely together to make sure that our final designs could be built. Our fabrication team provides manufacturing knowledge and experience, which enables us to make designs a reality.