Spees Design Build provided design services for a comprehensive and cohesive exterior and interior facility signage and wayfinding system for the Seattle campus. The wayfinding system addresses all potential points of arrival to the campus, supports spatial orientation, and provides all patients and visitors with clear and intuitive means of travel and access to all points of service. Developing and writing the Wayfinding manual for VA Puget Sound was conducted to ensure the campus is brought into the current technology world, and that the latest and
most efficient digital technology can be incorporated into their wayfinding. The design included features for the interior buildings and exterior features around the campus to support and assist patients, visitors, and staff to easily find their way around with intuitive design/wayfinding.

Challenges this project focused on solving included navigating a congested, dense urban campus which continues to grow in increasing complexity and patient services. With roughly over 20 buildings of varying ages and architectural styles, serving a diverse patient base, their family members, staff and visitors. The Seattle campus provides a wide array of patient services and is one of the more complex campuses to navigate. Wayfinding is a consistent issue for our patients visiting the Seattle site. Part of the VA’s key mission is to be the caregiver of choice for all our veterans and improving the patient experience is a core directive for the wayfinding consulting and design services.

Through this project the Spees Design Build team developed a Wayfinding Manual organized to logically explain the wayfinding system with general and specialized information about specific programming across the campus and modernizing signage compliant with the VA Design Guides while integrating industry best practices. Sections to include Design Elements and Zoning, give a comprehensive overview of the logic and structure of the wayfinding system. In these sections the VA is able to implement text, icons, colors, and the other components that work together to form the complete wayfinding system. The program and manual offered details and explanations which are organized by location: Interior, Exterior, and Parking with sections providing both visual and written information (size, description, color specs).