The University of Pennsylvania’s new $1.5 billion hospital, dubbed the Pavilion, is the largest capital project in Penn’s history. It will be Philadelphia’s most sophisticated healthcare building.
The Pavilion is being built on Penn Medicine’s West Philadelphia campus. It will create a new public square and focal point for the surrounding buildings to anchor the health system. Not only is the new hospital designed to deliver the best care to patients based on current standards, but it will also have the ability to quickly adapt to any advancements that occur over the next few decades.
About 500 new private patient rooms and 47 operating/interventional rooms are included in the 1.5 million-sf, 17-story facility. A network of public bridges and walkways will link the Pavilion to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the adjacent Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. It will also be connected to the nearby train station.
The hospital is broken down into smaller neighborhoods meant to provide a sense of community. Patients and employees will have access to plentiful daylight and landscaped views. Each patient room also has the ability to be personalized by patients and visitors.
Some of the highlights of the Pavilion include:
— Long term flexibility incorporated into the design so patient rooms can be adapted and changed over time with minimal impact to the building fabric. All the private patient rooms are uniform so the right care can be brought to them, which makes the hospital design flexible both today and into the future.
— Future in-room technologies that will strengthen communication between patients, families, and care teams provide for educational programming, and enhance multi-nodal physician consultation are all anticipated for the patient rooms.
— An environmentally conscious design, construction and operational plan for the Pavilion fortifies Penn’s commitment to the environment. The design includes innovations like the re-use of water, 100 percent outside air, optimized access to daylight, outdoor green space for patients, families and staff, and ultimately a high performance building envelope and mechanical systems.
The Pavilion Build Team consists of healthcare design firm HDR, international architect Foster + Partners, engineering designer BR+A, construction management expert L.F. Driscoll and Balfour Beatty, and Penn Medicine’s clinical and facilities experts. The hospital is scheduled for completion in 2021.
Related Stories
| Dec 13, 2013
Safe and sound: 10 solutions for fire and life safety
From a dual fire-CO detector to an aspiration-sensing fire alarm, BD+C editors present a roundup of new fire and life safety products and technologies.
| Dec 10, 2013
16 great solutions for architects, engineers, and contractors
From a crowd-funded smart shovel to a why-didn’t-someone-do-this-sooner scheme for managing traffic in public restrooms, these ideas are noteworthy for creative problem-solving. Here are some of the most intriguing innovations the BD+C community has brought to our attention this year.
| Dec 10, 2013
Modular Pedia-Pod: Sustainability in healthcare construction [slideshow]
Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia was the site of a unique display—Pedia-Pod, a modular pediatric treatment room designed and built by NRB, in collaboration with the editors of Building Design+Construction, SGC Horizon LLC, and their team of medical design consultants.
| Dec 3, 2013
Creating a healthcare capital project plan: The truth behind the numbers
When setting up a capital project plan, it's one thing to have the data, but quite another to have the knowledge of the process.
| Nov 27, 2013
Pediatric hospitals improve care with flexible, age-sensitive design
Pediatric hospitals face many of the same concerns as their adult counterparts. Inpatient bed demand is declining, outpatient visits are soaring, and there is a higher level of focus on prevention and reduced readmissions.
| Nov 27, 2013
Exclusive survey: Revenues increased at nearly half of AEC firms in 2013
Forty-six percent of the respondents to an exclusive BD+C survey of AEC professionals reported that revenues had increased this year compared to 2012, with another 24.2% saying cash flow had stayed the same.
| Nov 27, 2013
Wonder walls: 13 choices for the building envelope
BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina.
| Nov 27, 2013
LEED for Healthcare offers new paths to green
LEED for Healthcare debuted in spring 2011, and certifications are now beginning to roll in. They include the new Puyallup (Wash.) Medical Center and the W.H. and Elaine McCarty South Tower at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin.
| Nov 26, 2013
Construction costs rise for 22nd straight month in November
Construction costs in North America rose for the 22nd consecutive month in November as labor costs continued to increase, amid growing industry concern over the tight availability of skilled workers.
| Nov 25, 2013
Building Teams need to help owners avoid 'operational stray'
"Operational stray" occurs when a building’s MEP systems don’t work the way they should. Even the most well-designed and constructed building can stray from perfection—and that can cost the owner a ton in unnecessary utility costs. But help is on the way.
