WakeMed Whole Health Campus Mental Health & Well-Being Hospital and Acute Care Hospital

WakeMed Health & Hospitals is Wake County’s leading healthcare provider. As the region continues to grow, WakeMed recognized that expanding capacity alone would not be enough. South of Raleigh, in Garner, the organization envisioned a new campus that fundamentally challenges longstanding assumptions about how healthcare is delivered—and how it is experienced.

Set within a 53-acre wooded landscape, the campus breaks from conventional healthcare models by uniting acute medical care and behavioral health within a single, integrated facility. Rather than treating mental and physical health as parallel systems, the design recognizes them as inseparable elements of care—reducing stigma, improving access, and acknowledging the full spectrum of human health.

The building is organized around a Y-shaped plan anchored by a rectangular bar at its base. A distinctive glass curtainwall marks the primary public arrival and two-story registration lobby. To the left, a 45-bed acute hospital extends beyond the main lobby, with capacity for future expansion. The two wings of the Y house six inpatient behavioral health units totaling 150 beds on the upper floors, and behavioral health outpatient services on the ground level. These units overlook a secure outdoor courtyard designed to support therapeutic access to nature.

The design thoughtfully integrates physical and mental healthcare while maintaining necessary and secure boundaries—particularly around inpatient behavioral health areas—with carefully planned entry points embedded within the public hospital experience.

Integrated planning, shared circulation, and amenities support a care model that recognizes mind, body and spirit as deeply interconnected, reshaping how patients, families and staff move through the care experience together.

Realizing this vision required carefully evaluating traditional operational models to support a highly integrated care environment and spatial hierarchies. The resulting environment prioritizes dignity, trust and empathy— replacing anxiety and isolation with clarity and openness. Every design decision reinforces WakeMed’s belief that behavioral health deserves the same visibility, respect and quality of environment as acute medical care.

Guided by an integrated care model, the design responds to the full patient journey—emphasizing clarity, dignity and hope at every point of care. Drawing restorative strength from the surrounding woodland, the architecture and interiors leverage natural light, views, and natural material warmth to support healing and well-being. The campus is also planned for long-term adaptability, ensuring it can grow and evolve alongside the community it serves.

The Acute care wing houses the Emergency Department, imaging services and the surgical floor below the two Inpatient floors. Shared hospital functions, including dining, retail pharmacy, gift shop, staff areas, and administrative offices, are centralized to encourage interaction and blur distinctions between care types, reinforcing a culture of inclusion.

The exterior expression balances strength, warmth and continuity. A brick façade ties the campus to WakeMed’s broader portfolio and Garner’s architectural character, while vertical shading fins soften the massing, unify varied window openings, and echo the surrounding forest. Inside, a glass-enclosed central concourse with natural materials and colors reflects a biophilic approach, creating a calm, human‑centered environment.

Outdoor space plays a central role in the campus experience, thoughtfully tailored to serve different users while maintaining privacy and security. Public-facing areas are oriented toward landscaped green space, extending the main concourse experience through strong visual connections to nature. At the heart of the campus, a south-facing dining deck provides a shared outdoor amenity accessible to patients, staff, and visitors, while a secure west-facing courtyard offers a therapeutic, nature-based environment exclusively for behavioral health patients.

These connections to landscape also informed the building’s form and layout, with both Acute Care and Behavioral Inpatient units designed so that all inpatient rooms have direct views to the surrounding natural environment.

By uniting behavioral and acute healthcare in a shared setting, the WakeMed Whole Health Campus represents a meaningful evolution in healthcare architecture—challenging stigma, elevating behavioral health, and redefining what it means to care for the whole person.

Rooted in empathy, collaboration and respect, the project demonstrates how thoughtful design can advance both clinical excellence and human dignity—marking an important step forward in WakeMed’s mission and the future of integrated healthcare delivery.