East meets West in hospital design

The Los Angeles office of HMC Architects and the Chinese firm Shunde Architectural Design Institute won the commission to design the 2.15 million-sf First People's Hospital in the Shunde District of Foshan, China. The team's winning concept organizes a series of buildings around a dynamic, curved spine element to create an interior “eco-atrium” with outdoor green space and healing gardens. A tower intersects the spine, marking the 1,500-bed hospital's center point and dividing the campus into four distinct zones—public, outpatient, support, and quiet. The project's green features include locally sourced materials, photovoltaic panels, natural daylighting, water recycling, chilled beams, and low-VOC materials.

"Obamacare" implementation will add thousands of people to the ranks of the insured, including many who formerly sought primary care in emergency rooms. Now, these patients will have coverage that allows them to more easily access the typical treatment channels—and that means greater demand for services provided in medical office buildings.

| Jul 19, 2013

Reconstruction Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]

Structure Tone, DPR, Gilbane top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest reconstruction contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.

| Jul 19, 2013

Reconstruction Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]

URS, STV, Wiss Janney Elstner top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest reconstruction engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.

| Jul 19, 2013

Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]

Stantec, HOK, HDR top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.

The Paramount Theatre of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was heavily damaged by flooding in

| Jul 19, 2013

Renovation, adaptive reuse stay strong, providing fertile ground for growth [2013 Giants 300 Report]

Increasingly, owners recognize that existing buildings represent a considerable resource in embodied energy, which can often be leveraged for lower front-end costs and a faster turnaround than new construction.

| Jul 18, 2013

Do third-corridor designs actually work for healthcare environments?

A recent study of a nursing unit assessed whether the space's third corridor does what it was intended to do: reduce noise and distraction to patients and nursing staff.