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August 14, 2006
Good Shepherd Health & Technology Center is a Destination for Physical Rehabilitation, Technology, Fitness & Lifestyle Products
New Building Is Centerpiece of Good Shepherd’s $41.7 Million Campus Transformation
Allentown—The recently opened Good Shepherd Health & Technology Center at 850 South Fifth Street in Allentown is not only a leading-edge outpatient center, but it is the result of visionary discussion about how people with disabilities receive services such as physical rehabilitation, fitness, assistive and rehabilitation technology and lifestyle products. The $20.8 million state-of-the-art building is a health-care destination for people with and without disabilities to find services not available anywhere else in the region, including an assistive technology center with a wheelchair/mobility center and adaptive driving program, a store with more than 3,500 lifestyle products and a fitness center that is accessible to people of all ability levels.
“People will come to the Health & Technology Center from throughout the region to find ways to help them stay independent and improve their function,” says Sally Gammon, president & CEO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network. “The Health & Technology Center and the campus transformation resulted in a $41.7 million investment in Allentown, created about 130 new, well-paying jobs and will inject more than $8 million into the local economy annually. Good Shepherd believes in the city of Allentown, the people who live, work and lead here. That is why we chose to make this investment in Allentown.”
The Health & Technology Center allowed Good Shepherd to consolidate outpatient services, which had been scattered throughout its south Allentown campus, into one convenient location. Most of the programs and services moved into larger, brighter spaces.
Services and programs located in the building are:
- Harry C. Trexler Center for Assistive Technology, which includes the RJ Foundation Mobility Center (Wheelchair Clinic and Adaptive Driving Program)
- Orthopedic Rehabilitation
- Hand Therapy
- Day Hospital for people who need multiple outpatient therapies in a single day
- Neororehabilitation
- Pediatric Rehabilitation, including the KNBT Pediatric Assistive Technology Lab
- MS Wellness Program
- Fitness Center with free weights, cardio equipment and fully accessible Apex strengthening equipment (opening early September)
- Aquatherapy Center with a 1,200-square-foot warm-water pool
- Imaging Center (MRI and CT) that is wheelchair accessible (opening in late September)
- Physician Offices
- REHABILITY!SM – Your Optimal Living Store (opening September 7)
- Shepherd’s Table café, serving Starbucks® coffee (opening August 15)
- Good Shepherd History Wall
- Interactive Donor Area
The Health & Technology Center is the final piece of Good Shepherd’s south Allentown campus transformation, that included the Supported Independent Living Apartments (opened 2003), a seven-level parking deck (opened 2005) and the reconfiguration of the roads around the campus. The 1.7 acres of grounds on the south Allentown campus include pathways for walking and testing wheelchairs and mobility systems, an amphitheater and gardens (to be installed in September) that include 9 types of trees, 11 types of shrubs (including black night butterfly bushes and spice bushes) and three types of ground cover. A statue of the Rev. Dr. Conrad W. Raker, son of the founders of the organization, will be unveiled on the grounds in September.
Good Shepherd took into consideration the safety of pedestrians and people in wheelchairs when it developed the project’s street improvements. For the convenience of its neighbors, Good Shepherd created parking lay-bys for those who live on South Sixth and Wyoming streets near the campus. A pedestrian bridge (over South Fifth Street) connecting the parking deck with the Health & Technology Center will be completed in early 2007.
Road changes included the permanent closing of St. John Street between South Fifth and Sixth streets in May 2006 to help create a cohesive, campus-like feel for Good Shepherd’s south Allentown facilities. Anew traffic light was installed at the corner of South Sixth and Wyoming streets.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the City of Allentown worked with Good Shepherd throughout the project. As traffic flow around the campus was reviewed, city of Allentown officials chose to rework one-way designations on parts of Cleveland (now one way east between South Fifth and Sixth and one way west between Sixth and Seventh streets) and Harrison (now one way west between South Fifth and Sixth) streets, which are north of the Good Shepherd campus.
Health & Technology Center facts:
- Square footage: 64,000
- Cost for Health & Technology Center Building: $20.8 million
- Building Levels: Three
- Building Hours: 5 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
- Parking for patients and visitors: Valet parking available at the building’s main entrance off Wyoming Street. Parking available in the Good Shepherd’s 526-space parking deck on South Fifth Street and on a two-level deck attached to the building (accessible off South Fifth Street and Wyoming Street, respectively).
- Project Developer: Anchor Health Properties of Wilmington, Delaware
- Project Architect: Cope Linder of Philadelphia
- Project General Contractor: Alvin H. Butz, Inc., of Allentown
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