A three-story “living wall” of greenery was only the first hint of change at Connecticut’s Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC).

The dazzling display adorns CHC’s new Knowledge & Technology Center, a 31,000-square-foot facility financed in part by the Primary Care Development Corporation.

For the recent grand opening in Middletown, dozens of guests — from elected officials to local schoolchildren — gathered to celebrate the latest chapter in CHC’s history.

“We had this simple mission — to make sure health care was available to all people, regardless of their class or race or language or orientation, and other historic barriers of discrimination that people in our community face,” Founder, President, and CEO Mark Masselli said of the organization, which was founded in 1972.

Today, CHC operates more than 200 service locations across Connecticut, as well as in Colorado and California, serving more than 140,000 patients.

The new facility, located across the street from CHC headquarters, will house support functions for human resources and IT. It will also expand CHC’s Weitzman Institute, a renowned organization dedicated to research and innovation in primary care, and accommodate a nurse practitioner residency program known for its national reach to populations in need.

“We have a saying at the health center: If you’re going to be engaged in the provision of primary health care, you have an obligation to improve it,” Masselli said.