The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) has selected the recipients of the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards program. The program showcases the best healthcare building design and healthcare design-oriented research. Projects exhibit conceptual strengths that solve aesthetic, civic, urban, and social concerns as well as the requisite functional and sustainability concerns of a hospital.
Recipients were selected in four categories:
Category A: Built, Less than $25 million in construction cost
Category B: Built, More than $25 million in construction cost
Category C: Unbuilt, Must be commissioned for compensation by a client with the authority and intention to build (No projects were selected in this category this year)
Category D: Innovations in Planning and Design Research, Built and Unbuilt
(All images courtesy AIA. Click photos to enlarge. Click project names for more information and images.)
Category A
Photo: Bruce Damonte
Kaiser Permanente, Kraemer Radiation Oncology Center | Anaheim, CA | Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design
The design for this LEED Gold radiation therapy building provides a highly supportive environment for the treatment and care of cancer patients. The challenge was to create an environment that reduces stress for patients and families and provides the best current technological infrastructure. The approach focused on the needs of cancer patients and their treatment schedules, which typically occur five days a week for five to eight consecutive weeks. The design provides a calming experience through the use of natural light, organic forms, outdoor views to nature, soothing interior colors, and an internal “Zen Garden” with a vibrant living wall garden.
Photo: Michael Moran
Planned Parenthood Queens: Diane L. Max Health Center | Queens, New York | Stephen Yablon Architecture
For its first center in Queens, Planned Parenthood sought a facility that provided state-of-the-art care for one of the most diverse communities in the world. Since opening, the facility has ranked in the 99th percentile for patient satisfaction when compared to similar hospitals. The building’s contemporary design contrasts with its brownstone neighbors, establishing itself as a welcoming community institution. The sleek and light-filled interiors are uplifting and easy to navigate, reducing patient stress. A bold color system aids in orientation and livens up the center.
Category B
Photo: Ron Blunt
Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Regional Ambulatory Cancer Center | West Harrison, New York | EwingCole
The efficient layout reduces the cost of healthcare delivery and supports both short- and long-term expansion possibilities at the West Harrison site for Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Regional Cancer Center. The challenge for the design team was converting what was a 1950s office building, with dated brick and metal panels and large floor plates, into a modern cancer center. The building not only accomplished LEED Gold status but also implemented healthy-building initiatives, such as specifying PVC-free products for both construction and design.
Photo: Tom Rossiter
The Christ Hospital Joint and Spine Center | Cincinnati | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
The Christ Hospital sought to unify its main campus through a model for integrated, patient-centered joint and spine care. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill worked with patients, medical professionals, and hospital staff to design the new Joint and Spine Center. Inside the hospital, spaces for patients are filled with daylight, outside views are maximized to support well-being, and quiet spaces for family and staff are programmed with comfortable furnishings for conversation and rest. The building is LEED certified. Since opening, the facility has ranked in the 99th percentile for patient satisfaction when compared to similar hospitals.
Photo: Nick Merrick / Hedrich Blessing Photographers
The University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center | Phoenix | ZGF Architects LLP
The 220,000-sf UACC is intended to deliver care within an evidence-based, multidisciplinary model, using the most modern technologies. The building program includes spaces for radiation oncology, diagnostic imaging, endoscopy and interventional radiology, and exam and procedure rooms, along with a support and wellness center, a clinical pharmacy, and a healing garden. The building was designed to integrate the natural beauty of the landscape and address the needs of the UACC staff and patients for years to come. An exterior shade system and chilled beams greatly contributed to the sustainability of the facility.
Photo: Ben Schneider
University Medical Center New Orleans | New Orleans | NBBJ
University Medical Center provides New Orleans with critical safety-net care in a 1.5 million-sf facility built to withstand natural disasters. Features include inpatient services, cancer care, behavioral health and a Level 1 trauma center. The design promotes holistic healing, from landscaped courtyards to all-private inpatient rooms with natural light and in-suite bathrooms. Wide double-bays and sliding breakout doors enable swift action in treatment zones. Floor-to-ceiling windows in public spaces create transparency and uplifting views, while custom artwork and graphics throughout the hospital to honor New Orleans’ rich heritage. The project is Louisiana’s largest teaching hospital and training facility for physicians, nurses and allied health professionals.
Category D
Photo: Aaron Leitz
Seattle Children's Hospital, South Clinic | Seattle | ZGF Architects LLP
Seattle Children's South Clinic advances the hub-and-spoke model of healthcare that brings outpatient services closer to patients in their communities. It offers more responsive care while reducing demand for acute care services. The clinic was designed with a focus on patient flow so providers can serve patients efficiently.
Located in the Seattle suburb of Federal Way and within a shopping center, the design adapts a former Circuit City store into a 37,000-sf outpatient clinic that houses urgent care, and occupational and physical therapy.
Related Stories
| Mar 3, 2011
HDR acquires healthcare design-build firm Cooper Medical
HDR, a global architecture, engineering and consulting firm, acquired Cooper Medical, a firm providing integrated design and construction services for healthcare facilities throughout the U.S. The new alliance, HDR Cooper Medical, will provide a full service design and construction delivery model to healthcare clients.
| Mar 1, 2011
New survey shows shifts in hospital construction projects
America’s hospitals and health systems are focusing more on renovation or expansion than new construction, according to a new survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). In fact, renovation or expansion accounted for 73% of construction projects at hospitals responding to the survey.
| Feb 22, 2011
HDR Architecture names four healthcare directors
Four senior professionals in HDR Architecture’s healthcare program have been named Healthcare directors.
| Feb 17, 2011
HDR Architecture sponsors national effort to green operating rooms
HDR Architecture, Inc. has joined the group of corporate sponsors of Practice Greenhealth’s Greening the Operating Room Initiative. This sweeping and prescriptive path to green the nation’s operating rooms was launched earlier this year to reduce the environmental footprint of the operating suites in hospitals across the country, which can produce between 20 and 30% of a hospital’s total waste.
| Feb 11, 2011
Iowa surgery center addresses both inpatient and outpatient care
The 12,000-person community of Carroll, Iowa, has a new $28 million surgery center to provide both inpatient and outpatient care. Minneapolis-based healthcare design firm Horty Elving headed up the four-story, 120,000-sf project for St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital. The center’s layout is based on a circular process flow, and includes four 800-sf operating rooms with poured rubber floors to reduce leg fatigue for surgeons and support staff, two substerile rooms between each pair of operating rooms, and two endoscopy rooms adjacent to the outpatient prep and recovery rooms. Recovery rooms are clustered in groups of four. The large family lounge (left) has expansive windows with views of the countryside, and television monitors that display coded information on patient status so loved ones can follow a patient’s progress.
| Feb 11, 2011
Two projects seek to reinvigorate Los Angeles County medical center
HMC Architects designed two new buildings for the Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Center as part of a $360 million plan to reinvigorate the campus. The buildings include a 120-bed hospital, which involves renovation of an existing tower and several support buildings, and the construction of a new multi-service ambulatory care center. The new facilities will have large expanses of glass at all waiting and public areas for unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles. A curved glass entrance canopy will unite the two buildings. When both projects are completed—the hospital in 2012 and the ambulatory care center in 2013—the campus will have added more than 460,000 sf of space. The hospital will seek LEED certification, while the ambulatory care center is targeting LEED Silver.
| Feb 9, 2011
Hospital Construction in the Age of Obamacare
The recession has hurt even the usually vibrant healthcare segment. Nearly three out of four hospital systems have put the brakes on capital projects. We asked five capital expenditure insiders for their advice on how Building Teams can still succeed in this highly competitive sector.
| Jan 31, 2011
Cuningham Group Architecture launches Healthcare studio with Lee Brennan
International design firm Cuningham Group Architecture, P.A. (Cuningham Group) has announced the arrival of Lee Brennan, AIA, as Principal and Leader of its new Healthcare studio. Brennan comes to Cuningham Group with over 30 years of professional experience, 22 of those years in healthcare, encompassing all aspects of project delivery, from strategic planning and programming through design and construction. The firm’s new Healthcare studio will enhance Cuningham Group’s expertise in leisure and entertainment, education, mixed-use/housing and workplace environments.
| Jan 31, 2011
HDR Architecture Releases Evidence-based Design Videos
As a follow-up to its book Evidence-based Design for Healthcare Facilities, HDR Architecture, Inc. has released three video case studies that highlight evidence-based design principles in action.
