Johnson, Iowa, USA
LifeServe Blood Center Headquarters provides a welcoming new office space, blood donation center, blood center operations and support space, and a 24/7 processing lab that support the organization’s vital work within the community and its mission to save lives.
The LifeServe Blood Center serves more than 170 hospitals across the Midwest region.
The new facility positions LifeServe for the future, designed with the flexibility to grow and adapt while strengthening the organization’s local presence in its community of Johnston, IA.
LifeServe Blood Center Headquarters by BNIM, won an 2025 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
LifeServe Blood Center’s mission and work is strongly connected to community, both serving and working with community members each day through life-saving blood donations.
LifeServe envisioned a new headquarters space that would create a welcoming community presence, enhancing opportunities to build connections among LifeServe’s employees, volunteers, and donors.
Generous daylight, transparency, a natural material palette, and intentional, connective spaces contribute to a facility that exemplifies LifeServe’s mission and encourages blood donation as a lifelong habit.
An inviting entry lobby features a two-story opening that visually and physically connects the main floor’s donor center with LifeServe’s office spaces above.
The facility introduces abundant daylight into the donor center, 24/7 laboratory, and office spaces, while ensuring optimal comfort through a sunscreen on the building’s south façade that reduces glare.
A spectrum of collaborative work areas, an exterior terrace and staff courtyard, and a community-facing donor garden with views to surrounding greenspace also enhance the building’s generous spirit of space.
A natural color palette and materials is prominent throughout the building’s spaces, including reclaimed wood from trees on the site.
Over 100 new trees were planted in place of those that could not be saved during construction, and reclaimed wood was utilized in BNIM-designed furniture pieces such as a conference table, coffee tables, and entry lobby benches, created in collaboration with a local furniture builder.
Project: LifeServe Blood Center Headquarters
Architects: BNIM
Design Team: Jeff Shaffer, Rod Kruse, Kayla Berkson, and Tina Wehrman
Landscape Architects: Confluence
General Contractor: The Hansen Company
MEP Engineer: MODUS Engineering
Structural Engineer: Raker Rhodes Engineering
Client: LifeServe Blood Center
Photographers: Kendall McCougherty, Hall Merrick McCougherty
