Fisher House II Joint Base Lewis McCord
The JBLM Fisher House 2 project was a negotiated, design-assist new construction project for the Fisher House Foundation, built on base at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA. The Fisher House Foundation is a private, non-profit charitable organization headquartered in the Rockville, MD, dedicated to donating these guest house facilities to the US Armed Forces, at US military and VA hospitals throughout the country. These houses are built to public standards, but have the look and feel of high quality residential homes, and provide beautiful and comfortable, no-cost accommodations for wounded or impaired service personnel and their relatives in times of medical crisis or need. Individual quarters are provided for as long as needed, at no cost whatsoever to the service personnel or their families.
The JBLM Fisher House 2, was a second Fisher House built adjacent to the Madigan Army Hospital, with the original house built a decade earlier reporting consistently full, and a demonstrated need for additional bedrooms at the Madigan Hospital facility. This was also the second house NCI has built for the Fisher House Foundation. The new house is a single story, 10,000 square foot, wood framed 12 Bedroom, 12 Bathroom structure, built to the highest quality residential construction standards. The interior features a large custom kitchen for 12 families to store groceries and prepare meals, with imported Brazilian granite counter tops, custom white maple kitchen cabinets and counters. There are formal dining and living rooms, as well as a family room with complex, multi-level casing and trims and interior architectural columns. The elegant furnishings and rich interior finishes, casework and trims provide for a peaceful and secure environment where families can attend to their loved ones, and wounded soldiers can focus on their recoveries or transitions, with fewer worries or distractions. For the structure, the framing lumber was select grade douglas fir. Exterior finishes included custom brick siding, with painted clear Cedar fascia and soffits, and exterior vertical grain Douglas fir architectural columns and capitols. The transition space from indoor to outdoor spaces includes over 3,000 square feet of porches and patios, with timber gazebos above. The exterior grounds were extensively landscaped with trees and plantings to give the feeling of a private garden surrounding the home.
Construction for the site work and ground prep was initially authorized in July 2014, with site work and utilities scheduled around the Army sponsored utility infrastructure upgrades to water, sewer and storm water systems. Full building construction started in November 2014 and completed in September 2015. Construction coordination of the project required a close interaction between Neeser Construction, Fisher House and its design team, DesignTech Associates, and the Air Force/ Madigan Hospital project team, to accommodate interests of all stakeholders, and was always a project worth doing well and going the extra mile. It was successfully completed to the Fisher House quality standards, budget and on the original schedule in place at start of construction.
