When Luke Lynch donated blood at LifeServe Blood Center’s downtown Des Moines location, he sat in heavily used chairs and looked out a window that provided views of a parking lot.

This week, as Lynch donated blood, he sat in a cushiony, theater-style chair and looked out large glass windows that spanned the width of LifeServe’s new facility in Johnston. In the coming months, the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows will include newly planted trees and a prairie of wildflowers attractive to birds and butterflies.

“The view is going to be great,” said Lynch, senior community engagement officer for the United Way of Central Iowa. “It’s so much better than a parking lot.”

Lynch was among the first to donate blood this week at LifeServe Blood Center’s new facility at 5625 N.W. Johnston Drive.

LifeServe’s existing donor centers are very clinic-like, said Stacy Sime, the group’s president and CEO. “It feels like you’re going to the doctor. … We wanted to create an environment that is much more spa-like. We wanted to get away from the feel of being in a clinic and make donating blood a much more pleasing experience.”

The donor center includes contemporary-looking furniture and a canteen stocked with coffee, juices, water, fruits and prepackaged foods.

The nonprofit had been located at 431 E. Locust St., in Des Moines’ East Village. Beginning on May 31, LifeServe’s laboratory and supplies were moved to the new location. Staff arrived for work in the new facility on June 3. The new donor center opened Monday.

“We were able to do the move without shutting down production,” Sime said.

Added Christine Hayes, LifeServe’s vice president of operations: “We just don’t have the luxury of living in a world where we can take a day off.”

Discussions about relocating out of downtown began before the start of the pandemic. Talks, put on hold during the pandemic, began again in early 2021 as LifeServe found itself in need of additional space. The organization, which is increasing its work with cancer patients, was in need of more laboratory space and patient rooms. The group also needed more space for its growing staff, which numbers 150 at the Johnston facility.

The new two-story building, which includes about 56,500 square feet of space, was constructed on a 6.1-acre parcel that previously had been home to Heard Gardens.

LifeServe officials wanted its new headquarters to be in northwest Polk County near where employees and volunteers live. They also wanted a new facility near Interstate Highway 80, making it easily accessible for semi-trailers delivering equipment as well as donors, patients, volunteers, employees and others.

The spacious donor center, laboratory, supply area and loading docks are on the first floor. The laboratory has more space than is currently needed. “We did that for expansion purposes,” Sime said.

Also on the first floor, in the area where the laboratory is located, are clean rooms that are pressurized and require special training to access. The rooms will be used to manufacture specialty cell therapy products.

A board room and other meeting rooms are on the second floor along with an area for employees to eat and take breaks. A balcony, on the east end of the building, overlooks where the wildflowers will grow. Employee workspaces, none of which are assigned, are also on the second floor.

“We do not have any offices,” Sime said. “Not having offices gave us the ability to create a much higher level of amenity for the staff. We wanted to draw people to this area [which includes a canteen and break areas] and provide a good connection to the patio,” which is on the east side of the building and overlooks the wildflower prairie.

Both the first and second floor include floor to ceiling windows. On the building’s south exterior is what’s called building scrim that includes fixed blades that provide passive shading to interior spaces, Jeff Shaffer, an associate principal with BNIM Architects, wrote in an email. The orientation of the blades maximizes views from inside the building to the exterior.

The scrim is made of Cor-Ten that provides “a natural element of warmth to the building and site,” Shaffer wrote.

On the west end of the building is a large Cor-Ten screen designed to resemble how red blood cells would look under a microscope. The wall overlooks a donor garden, which, when completed, will include numerous plants and furniture.

A building permit issued in November 2022 valued the project at $25 million.

Who worked on the project?
CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT: Formation Group

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Hansen Co.

ARCHITECT: BNIM Architects