Prior to design, Mahlum’s project team traveled throughout the 44,000-square-mile service area, facilitating community outreach to gain a deeper understanding of the values, traditions, and challenges facing the region’s people. The result is a design incorporating state-of-the-art medical care within a comforting, culturally relevant environment that promotes healing and wellness. The hospital is located on a gently sloping site on the outskirts of Nome and is positioned to take full advantage of uninterrupted views of Norton Sound to the south.
This replacement hospital will serve the healthcare needs of the Inupiat, Siberian Yupik, and Yup’ik people of the Bering Strait region of northwest Alaska and support a system of satellite clinics in 15 coastal and island villages. The facility includes primary care, audiology, optometry, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, dental, emergency, ambulatory surgery, labor and delivery, and 16 patient beds.