The Department of Veterans Affairs is calling it a community living center. Most people would call it a nursing home.

Dr. Douglas Lane, a clinical psychologist at the VA's American Lake facility, has a different take.

"The facility is understood to be a residence," he said at Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony, "where veterans in need of extended, palliative or hospice care can receive the very best medical assistance in an environment that is homelike."

The $32 million, 79,000-square-foot facility should open in about 18 months. It will include 83 beds, including a 19-bed unit for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

“It’s about giving back to those who gave so much through their military service,” said Stan Johnson, the director of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

Speakers at Friday’s ceremony – attended by about 150 people – stressed that the facility wouldn’t just be another nursing home. The center is designed around one “main street” corridor, off which several “neighborhoods” branch. Almost every room will have a window with a view of the exterior or the courtyard.

“We went to a great length to make this more home-like, not institutional,” project architect Brian Ko said.

And the building could become the first in the VA to be LEED Silver certified for sustainability, Johnson said.

Other steps are being taken to help reduce overhead airplane noise for the residents inside and to help the exterior of the building blend into its surroundings.

“Over the course of your career, you have few projects that are truly close to your heart,” architect Brian Fitzgerald said. “This is one of those projects. One that our whole office can be proud of.”

It’s the hot trend in urban planning: An open-air shopping and dining center aimed at attracting customers both on cars and on foot. Outdoor fountains and sidewalk cafes contribute to a sense of community.

And developers want to bring it to Fort Lewis.

The organization that runs post exchanges and base exchanges at military installations across the world plans to develop a "lifestyle center" that mixes mid- to high-end retail and causal-dining restaurants linked together with wide sidewalks and outdoor fountains. Developers are also considering adding a roller-skating rink, health club, furniture store and bowling alley to the area.

The center is scheduled to open by summer 2012.

“This will be more than just a big-box PX next to the commissary,” Joseph Giuffreda, vice president of strategic partnerships for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, told a meeting of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce earlier this week.

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Stars and Stripes has a quick brief about the Fort Lewis-based 62nd Medical Brigade passing control to Fort Bragg’s 44th Medical Command at a ceremony Friday at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

That means the 62nd’s 15-month tour is just days from ending. Word is that they’ll return to Washington on Tuesday morning. We’ll be there for the homecoming.

So what has the 62nd been doing while it's away? According to Stripes, it has "served a 15-month tour during which it provided medical care to 'more than 320,000 U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces and more than 120,000 civilian contractors,' officials said.

"In addition, brigade members helped train more than 1,400 Iraqi medical personnel," the newspaper continued.

Since the 62nd deployed, of course, the Army has switched to 12-month deployments.

Got a loved one in the med brigade? Got anything special planned? We'd love to hear from you about it.

UPDATE: The Fort Lewis public affairs office just put out a press release confirming that the 62nd Medical Brigade will be back Tuesday. A ceremony is planned for 7 a.m. at the Sheridan Fitness Center.

More info from the release:

While deployed to Iraq since the summer of 2007, the unit achieved a 98 percent survival rate for patients entering a TF62 facility, an 80 percent battle injury return to duty rate, and treated over 106,000 dental patients; equivalent to over $9.6M in care. They also partnered with the Iraqi Ministry of Health to improve the healthcare system; trained over 800 Iraqi Healthcare Providers & Staff during professional engagements.