Healthcare's Inspiring Infrastructures
In its second edition of the Infrastructure 100, Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition, audit, tax, and advisory firm KPMG recognizes what its panel of infrastructure specialists and professionals determined to be “the most innovative and inspiring urban infrastructure projects from around the world.”
Ranking on that list of 100 are 10 healthcare projects, two of which can be found right here in the United States.
“The development of sustainable urban infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. With more than half of the global population already squeezed into cities that, collectively, make up less than 2% of the plant’s land cover, the pressure now being placed on urban infrastructure is unprecedented. This worldwide demand for infrastructure is expected to require the investment of tens of trillions of dollars over the next four decades in order to create and maintain sustainable and highly livable urban areas that balance the needs of the population, the economy, and the environment,” a press release from KPMG states.
KPMG assembled five regional judging panels that assessed hundreds of submissions according to the following criteria:
- Feasibility;
- Social impact;
- Technical and/or financial complexity;
- Innovation; and
- Impact on society.
Ten projects were selected by a global judging panel as being the most noteworthy within each project category.
Ranging from KPMG’s featured project The Royal London Hospital, to Bahia Suburbio Hospital in Salvador, to IIUM Teaching Hospital in Malaysia, healthcare projects garnering a spot on the list had to show innovation beyond simply providing care.
“Providers are now acutely aware of the links between physical infrastructure, the built environment, psychology, and healing,” KPMG’s website states.
Among those showcasing how a healthcare facility can make those connections are the Rush University Medical Center Transformation Project in Chicago and the new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Here’s what KPMG had to say about the facilities:
Rush University Medical Center Transformation Project
The new 14-story Rush building in Chicago—with a "green" rooftop water harvesting system—has been designed by renowned Chicago-based architect Perkins+Will and is set to be the first healthcare project in the world to receive LEED gold certification. Another unique feature is the McCormick Foundation Center for Advanced Emergency Response—the country’s first facility for mass care of casualty patients in the event of a chemical, radiological, or biological disaster.
New University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital
The new C.S Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor is offering the “same extraordinary medicine” in a “new extraordinary building,” which has achieved LEED silver certification. The hospital already offers one of the country’s leading pediatric care facilities, the Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, and a center for adult and pediatric bone marrow transplants.
To check out the entire list of healthcare projects noted in the Infrastructure 100, go here.
For the full list of projects, go here.