Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed November 2004)

Chief administrator: Hank Porten, Chief Executive Officer, (413) 534-1220

Firm: Payette, (617) 895-1042

Design team: Sho-Ping Chin, Principal-in-Charge; Ching-Hua Ho, Project Manager/Architect; Montserrat Minguell, Designer (Payette); Joseph Bonanno, MEP Engineer (R.D. Kimball Company, Inc.); Jimmy Su, Structural Engineer (Lim Consultants, Inc.)

Photography: © Warren Jagger

Total building area (sq. ft.): 8,700 (new); 25,300 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $310 (new); $308 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $2,700,000 (new); $7,800,000 (renovation)


A relatively simple expansion of two operating rooms for Holyoke Hospital evolved into a major construction project providing major improvements to its surgical services and a new public face. The front entry design encompasses a rethinking of the existing architectural elements, retooling them to achieve a new modern identity. The building is composed of a palette of existing materials and fenestration proportions enhanced by pre-patina copper as a featured articulation. It is further augmented by a steel and glass porte cochere drop-off that provides protection to patients and visitors. The new entrance includes walkways, driveways, stairways, and ramps integrated by a new landscape design.

New waiting areas, registration, and other programs, including a combined coffee/gift shop and a separate lobby for the cancer center, were created. This two-story space with stone floors and wood paneling is filled with natural light, making patients and visitors comfortable while waiting. Renovations were also completed on the first floor, including a physicians’ lounge and phlebotomy and EKG services.

The second floor is dedicated to surgery. A combination of new infills and renovations yielded a new surgical department with five operating rooms, a cath lab, a new 16-bed postanesthesia care unit (PACU), two endoscopy suites, and staff support space. The sequencing of construction phasing was of utmost concern in this project; the architect, in an effective partnership with Holyoke and the construction manager, was able to maintain the hospital’s daily routine operations without compromising services to patient care.