With the help of NSA Architects, Engineers, Planners, Southfield-based Ciena Healthcare recently opened a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in Lansing.

Regency at Lansing West provides both long and short-term rehabilitative services with physical, occupational, and speech therapy facilities. The late April opening marked the fifth skilled nursing facility NSA has designed and engineered for Ciena Healthcare. Roy Baker, NSA Architectural Design Vice President and Partner in Charge for the project, said Lansing West is a second-generation design.

"We continue to make advances to give this facility the feeling of being in a small bistro hotel versus an institutional place to get better," he said. "What research shows, when people are in a home-like setting, getting good food and good services, they heal better. We tried to really de-institutionalize this facility for it to have a more residential feeling, from how the building looks on the outside all the way down to the rooms."

A year of design and development by NSA went into Lansing West. Starting in 2008, NSA provided similar services to help Ciena Healthcare open Canton, Waterford and Grand Blanc facilities. Baker said about five years elapsed prior to opening second generation design facilities in Shelby Township and Lansing.

"There are a lot of unique features to the design," he added, "extra large windows, many courtyard views and outdoor walking areas. There's also a large outdoor cooking area outside of the dining room. We designed it to be a very pleasant, open and airy building with plenty of natural light. It's not the old-school nursing home experience."

Ciena Healthcare operates skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers in Michigan and Connecticut. "Our partnership with NSA helps us provide unparalleled services to the communities we serve," said Mohammad Qazi, President of Ciena Healthcare. "We work with patients to give them the kind of dignity and respect they deserve in a home-like environment. NSA's top-notch design and engineering services brings our vision to life."

NSA Architects, Engineers, Planners was founded in 1960. Over the past 55 years, it has grown into a full-service Architectural Engineering firm. NSA provides planning, design, and engineering services for the built environment. NSA's portfolio includes Senior Living residences, Municipal, Commercial, Manufacturing, Energy, Research and Development facilities, Education and Telecommunications buildings. NSA offers clients diverse experience, a proven track record, direct principal involvement and quality management, state-of-the-art technology and extensive retrofit knowledge. Learn more at, www.nsa-ae.com.