--- title: The Wellness Community's Construction Featured on ABC 7 News' Living Green Segment description: From ABC 7 www.mysuncoast.com LAKEWOOD RANCH - It's a place we all hope we'll never need to visit but it's one we're all thankful is here The Wel --- [![carbon 2022 logo](https://www.carbonae.com/hubfs/carbon-ae-horizontal-logo-2.svg "carbon 2022 logo")](https://www.carbonae.com) ![Sustainable design blog for progressive architecture](https://www.carbonae.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Gallery/1366_x_500_blog_cover.png?width=1366&name=1366_x_500_blog_cover.png "Sustainable design blog for progressive architecture") # The Sustainable Design Blog ### For the love of beauty, functionality, and the planet Earth ## [The Wellness Community's Construction Featured on ABC 7 News' Living Green Segment](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/bid/30671/the-wellness-community-s-construction-featured-on-abc-7-news-living-green-segment) Posted by [Carbon Design](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/author/carbon-design) on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 ![](https://www.carbonae.com/hs-fs/hubfs/C%20Mark-3.png?width=35&name=C%20Mark-3.png) Find me on: [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/carbon-design-architecture) | From ABC 7 [www.mysuncoast.com](http://www.mysuncoast.com/Global/story.asp?S=11993833&nav=menu577_2_5) LAKEWOOD RANCH - It's a place we all hope we'll never need to visit, but it's one we're all thankful is here.  [The Wellness Community](http://www.carlsonstudio.org/projects/---public/wellness/) offers free support services to cancer patients and their families, and soon will have a new healthy home to serve their clients. The Wellness Community is an amazing asset to the Suncoast.  And amazing certainly describes their new, green home that's now going up in Lakewood Ranch. From a model to reality, it's the new home of hope.  It's where your friends, neighbors, family members...maybe even you one day, will come to heal. Construction crews are creating a healing environment for cancer patients.  The Building Hope campus is being built to green standards, like no-VOC paints, sealants and adhesives...which translates to a healthy environment.  "Cancer patients' immune systems are compromised, so having clean, healthy indoor air to breathe everyday is really very, very important," says executive director Jay Lockaby. And so is natural light.  That's why there are lots of windows in the buildings -- both in the walls and on the roof.  "The research that we looked at told us that natural light was healing.  So the architect, the designers really maximized by having 2 pods instead of one building, so you got 8 sides facing outside instead of two.  They really maximize all the natural light they could." And those windows will look out at a 400-acre nature preserve...another element of the healing that will happen there. And topping it all off is the Bridge of Hope, a 156-foot long wooden arch that soars above the campus. At its base is another green element: century-old logs found at the bottom of the Suwanee River.  "Not being that they were cut down specifically for use in this building, they were cut down years ago and they were sunk in the river, and we recovered them.  So you're not cutting down new forest, new pine trees to do that," says Wade Wolfe, project manager with Willis A. Smith Construction. The facility will allow the Wellness Community to serve more people and serve them better.  It will also become an example.  "All the other Wellness Communities will be looking at this as the model facility if they build from the ground up, or even if they just add a wing or change the paint.  They can learn that no-VOC paint can help cancer patients." Willis A. Smith Construction is building the new facility.  They are the local experts in green commercial building. The Wellness Community is still trying to raise money for all the healing elements that will be part of the Building Hope campus. If you'd like to learn more, visit [www.helpusbuildhope.com/](http://www.helpusbuildhope.com/).   | | | --- | --- | |   |   | ## CELEBRATING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH DESIGN Welcome to the Carlson Studio Architecture blog - built for design enthusiasts and lovers of our planet. ### Subscribe to Email Updates ### Recent Posts ### Posts by Topic - [LEED (55)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/leed) - [green (42)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/green) - [carlson (38)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/carlson) - [usgbc (34)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/usgbc) - [sarasota (31)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/sarasota) - [architecture (29)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/architecture) - [Michael (20)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/michael) - [award (16)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/award) - [Green Design (14)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/green-design) - [Sustainable (13)](https://www.carbonae.com/journal/topic/sustainable) - 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