Healthy by Design

The Highlandtown Healthy Living Center on Fleet Street is the first federally qualified community healthcare center to be awarded LEED® Platinum and the first building in the city of Baltimore to receive Platinum. The center opened in 2010 and offers family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, OB/GYN, geriatrics, mental health, and pharmacy services to disadvantaged residents of east Baltimore; roughly a quarter of the center's patients are uninsured, and over half have Medicaid. Occupying 32,500 square feet (the whole second floor) of a new 65,000-square-foot building, the center is the largest of six run by the nonprofit Baltimore Medical System (BMS), with the capacity to serve 22,000 patients. A pharmacy and lab are on the first floor.

The structure is designed to encourage staff to model a healthy lifestyle. A large, airy community meeting room, leading onto a garden terrace, doubles as a lunch area for the center's seventy-five staff members. A bike storage room and shower are in the building's basement for those who commute by bike or exercise on their breaks.

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